


Don’t Make It A Habit

by Aspidities



Series: Habit Forming [1]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alpha Kara, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anal Sex, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Lena, Oral Sex, Rutting, i wrote 13k words of this before stopping, just so much, lord help me for i am a sinner, so much fucking filth you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2019-11-13 17:56:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18036137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aspidities/pseuds/Aspidities
Summary: When Kara goes into unexpected and unpleasant rut, Lena offers a helping hand. Because what else are friends for, right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks! This silly, smutty romp of feels and fuckery started as a prompt from my lovely subscribers, and they suggested a friends with benefits ABO. 
> 
> After checking with my good buddy @smutaboutyou—who wrote the definitive FWB Supercorp ABO that you should all go check out right now—to be sure it wasn’t blatant plagiarism, I sat down intending to write 3k words and instead wrote 13k words and counting. Of which the first chapter is now available to you here, on AO3, for the first time! 
> 
> First chapter is mostly plot, then you get sin later. 
> 
> Enjoy! Or don’t: I’m a note, not a cop.

There was a strange smell in the office when Lena went in for her monthly administrative meetings. 

She couldn’t quite place it. She stood by the coffee machine for a while, stirring creamer absentmindedly, and tried to figure it out. It wasn’t unpleasant at all, instead it was… spiced, exotic, strangely  _ warm _ , but there was no hint of a source. Certainly not the coffee, which, despite Lena’s best efforts, remained bog-standard—office prejudice dictated only Starbucks in little k-cups that invariably piled over the edge of the trash can, which became a precarious mound until the custodial staff came on Friday. 

So, not the coffee, then. Tea, maybe? There were little racks of paper packets, but none of them evoked that same shocking sweetness, even after leaning in for a closer whiff. 

“Lena?” Jess called, interrupting her brief reverie over the sweeteners. “HR is waiting for you in your office, when you’re ready.”

She straightened, and brushed crumbs of powdered creamer from the sleeves of her blazer. “Great, thanks.” Her assistant nodded and turned neatly on her heel to go, but Lena called her back. “Jess? Are you wearing new perfume?”

Jess looked quizzical. “Not really, no. I got a new body spray a while ago but I haven’t used it, yet.”

“Oh.” Lena tightened her nails on the edge of her coffee cup, and found herself mildly frustrated by that answer.  _ Mystery remains unsolved, then. Why does it bother me? It almost feels like my skin is itching.  _ “Never mind, then. What’s on the docket for today?”

Jess looked relieved to be back in the realm of questions she could answer. “HR wants to know if there are any employees yet who haven’t signed up for cycle leave. We have to send the PTO numbers in to finance by the end of the quarter.”

“Good. Let’s get that done soon, yes? I want to have lunch with Kara Danvers today.”

Jess hid a secretive little smile behind her iPhone and nodded, studiously. “Of course. We’ll pencil her in for noon.”

“Wonderful.” She made an about-face, heels clicking imperiously on the tiled floor as she made her way back through the bullpen to her office, with Jess trailing behind. 

Something stopped her halfway, however. Her nostrils flared and she could feel a lightness in her chest, as she breathed in something smoky and thick. Her head swam for a moment, and she had to close her eyes, wavering on her heels. Strong fingers laced around her upper arms and Lena almost  _ swooned _ . 

“Lena?” Kara’s concerned, gentle voice reached through the fog to her ears. “Are you alright?”

Lena popped her eyes open, and managed to give her favorite reporter a weak smile. “Oh yes, sorry about that, I—“

She trailed off almost immediately as she took another breath and her lungs were coated in scent. A pleasant tingling spread from Kara’s fingers to her spine, eliciting a small gasp. 

“I’m fine,” she managed, finally, aware that she must be looking absolutely dumbstruck. Lena tried to focus her breathing into even rounds once more, but it was hard—everything felt so  _ hot  _ all of a sudden. Her gaze dropped down to where Kara held her, and, vaguely, she could see finger marks starting to form.

Kara dropped her hands, looking guilty. Her overall demeanor seemed a sharp contrast to the dizziness Lena felt—the reporter almost looked frazzled and unkempt. Her chest was moving rhythmically and her eyes looked bloodshot. She fidgeted in place, and her eyes roved Lena’s body almost….hungrily. 

“Sorry about that, I must have stumbled on something,” Lena said, slightly breathless. Kara just stared at her, glasses askew. “I, um, have some meetings until noon, but I have you all scheduled for our lunch date. I didn’t forget.”

Kara nodded and coughed, as if she was remembering to speak. “G-great, great, yeah. I have some work I need to do until then, so—“

They sidestepped each other in tandem. Lena laughed at the awkwardness, but Kara looked strangely mortified.  _ What’s up with her?  _

“Okay seeyoulater _ bye _ !” She nearly yelled at Lena in a garbled rush, and brushed past, holding a sheaf of papers close to her waist. 

Jess, who had been observing the whole thing from two paces behind, coughed politely, and Lena nearly jumped.  _ Something is making the whole office weird, today, I suppose.  _ Giving the matter no further thought, she nodded at her assistant and led the way into the office, where Stephanie from HR awaited patiently with a spread of reports. 

Lena listened patiently with half of her brain, as she was given a detailed quarterly rundown on budget concerns and staffing issues. As usual, she was able to pay enough attention to respond correctly and ask the right questions, while the rest of her thoughts narrowed in on her strange mood.  _ What is with me today? It’s almost as if it’s my cycle, but that can’t be. My last heat was two weeks ago. I’m not due for another month and— _

Something clicked.  _ Alpha. I’m smelling alpha. In the office. Someone’s rutting. But who? _

Now  _ that _ was an interesting quandary. Far more interesting than the HR Director’s gently droning voice, to be sure. Normally, the smell of an alpha in rut wasn’t at all distracting. National City was a big place, and someone was almost always beginning or ending a cycle. But Lena had somewhat of a fastidious nose, and alpha musk had never appealed to her in such a way before. She’d usually dated betas, and preferred to keep her status off the table, as far as sexuality went—Lillian Luthor hadn’t particularly warmed to the idea of an omega in the family, and had instilled a deep-seeded discomfort in Lena towards her base instincts. She routinely went through heats alone, even when in relationships, and much preferred it that way—easier to control herself in the public eye. An alpha’s pheromone trail had never enticed or influenced her cycle before. 

_ I wonder who it is.  _

She tuned out even further to look slightly over Stephanie’s shoulder, to the bullpen, examining her options. James and Jess were betas, so that left them out of the running, as were most of the other office members. There was Finn from Accounting, Genji from the Ad Sales department, as well as Rachel, Saorise and Rajiv, the reporters— all alphas. Most of them managed their ruts in a timely fashion, and took leave accordingly, however, so she didn’t think it was any of them. And then there were six omegas—not including herself, of course—but none of them were capable of producing such an intense, dominating pull.

She did not include Kara in her calculations, she realized after some thought. But that was because she’d never fully felt she had to. Kara was a Kryptonian, of course, and she didn’t even know if they  _ had _ alphas. 

(Not that she’d ever admit it to Lena—no, she had to maintain the silly charade. But Lena knew, obviously. She had several PhDs, after all, and it didn’t take a doctorate from MIT to see the similarities between someone with glasses and a ponytail and a certain someone who could fly. She just assumed Kara wasn’t ready to tell her yet, and that was fine. She could have her secrets. Lena had plenty of her own.) 

Kryptonians didn’t appear to have any sexual dimorphism present on their planet, from what little research she could find, but all the articles did speak of them being largely close to humans in form and feature, and you could tell. Kara was a flawless example of that, really. All chiseled, sharp edges down her abdomen and muscles that—

“Miss Luthor?” 

“Mmmhmm?” She shook herself, slightly, from daydreaming, and refocused. “I apologize, what was that, again?”

“We have a couple status employees left who haven’t signed up for heat or rut leave.” Stephanie explained, patiently. “We need to make our staff more aware of the benefits of paid time off for their cycles, or we’ll have to take a hefty government bite at the end of the quarter to compensate for not making all of our employees take advantage of legally-mandated services. It’s essentially like us refusing health insurance.”

“Oh, I see.” Lena drummed her nails on the glass table, absently, as she considered. “Perhaps we could have supervising staff bring this up individually in the one-on-ones? That way we aren’t singling anyone out in a group presentation.”

“That would be my recommendation as well, Miss Luthor.” Stephanie nodded along with her. “We can have managers discuss this privately among staff in their usual check-ins, so as to be non-threatening, and that way no one feels like they’ve been reprimanded.”

“Excellent.” Lena’s eyes swung to the clock. The needle was wavering dangerously close to twelve. “Well, if there isn’t anything further to discuss…”

There wasn’t. She stood up with Stephanie and had Jess escort her out after some pleasantries. She also sent Jess to lunch, and sat down on her office couch to wait, settling her hands on her skirt to quell the usual nervous anticipation in her belly. 

Lena wasn’t very good at being friends. She knew that, intrinsically. Boarding school had been a nightmare. In college she’d learned that no matter how hard she tried, the name followed her around like a bad taste in the mouth and it kept a wide berth. So she learned other ways. ‘Friends’ to Lena gradually grew to mean networking acquaintances, business associates, and opportunistic moves. Power plays made under tight smiles and tailored suits. 

Being friends with Kara was nothing like that. 

Kara was a  _ hugger _ , for one. She loved to crush her body against Lena with one arm slung across her back, chests touching, until the breath felt tight in Lena’s lungs. She was a gift-giver, too, always bringing bags of donuts or burgers or, on rare occasions, Lena’s favorite lemon kale salad from the Greek place. And she loved bad movies and nights in with sweatpants. She loved  _ sharing, being emotional.  _ Lena had never done anything like that before. Or cried, before, in front of anyone other than Lex. She’d never felt safe enough to be that vulnerable, that emotionally bare. Kara had that effect. 

And in all of her innocent open-hearted kindness, she had no idea that Lena was absolutely falling in love with her. 

Lena had tried to play the sexual tension card for several months, testing the waters. She’d laid slow, suggestive blinks on Kara until her eyes ached. Then she tried lip biting. Then she bought an entire florist’s worth of flowers. Then she bought a journalism company. Her accountants thought she’d gone mad. 

Kara hadn’t taken the hint, in any case. She’d remained charmingly oblivious through it all, aside from some stammering and periodic eyewear adjustment. And that, sadly, meant that she was definitely straight as an arrow, and any reciprocal moments that Lena might have felt were just that—moments. Nothing more. No matter how disappointing that may be. 

She banished such thoughts as she saw Kara approach from the glass doors, and forced herself to smile welcomingly. Regardless of how she felt, it was still  _ good _ to have someone like Kara in her life, she told herself. Having her as a friend was better than not having her at all.

Something seemed to be up, however. Kara hesitated before she touched the door, and her outfit looked a bit more disheveled than usual. Lena’s brow furrowed.  _ Oh no, I bet she has a Supergirl emergency. I wish she would just tell me instead of making up an excuse this time— _

When Kara opened the door, all thought vanished from her mind. 

The scent was back, and  _ stronger.  _ It filled the confines of her glass-walled office, and the air was suddenly heavy, warm, and humid, like a damp fog. Lena blinked, sluggishly, and drew a breath, trying to center herself, but that proved a mistake—the heat of it filled her lungs and she was nearly gasping by the time the door swung closed again. 

Kara stepped inside, but didn’t rush to hug her as she usually would, and that was a small mercy, because Lena was only able to keep herself upright on the couch through sheer, white-knuckled grip on the leather. Standing would be impossible. She blinked, again, and saw that Kara was looking rigidly over her shoulder, as if trying to avoid her eyes. The blonde’s face was red, and she looked sweaty, but something about her  _ called _ to Lena with every fibre of her being—

_ Kara. It’s Kara. She’s rutting. I can smell her. Oh god, I want…. _

“Lena.” Kara cleared her throat, but it was no use—the husky timbre sent shivers of arousal straight into Lena’s thighs. “I’m s-sorry but I think I need to cancel our lunch date today, I’m feeling kind of sick and I think I….” 

She trailed off, and her gaze finally landed onto Lena’s. For a moment, her eyes darkened, and the pupils, black as night,  _ burned _ as they trailed down her body. Lena felt a thrill set fire to her spine.  _ She wants me,  _ she realized, mildly delirious.  _ Kara is in rut, and she’s attracted to me. _

“Kara.” Lena tried to speak, but it came out as a croak. Kara just kept looking at her, and that intense  _ hunger _ had her fingers digging deeper into the couch. She tried again. “Kara, I think you should sit down.”

Kara’s throat constricted and she reached, instinctively, to adjust her glasses, but brought her fist back down to clench at her side. That nervous hand movement drew Lena’s eye, and she zeroed in on the front of Kara’s neatly-pressed slacks. She wet her lips when she realized she could see something stirring, beginning to rise against the pleating, and there was an answering tug in her lower body. Her eyes drew back up to Kara’s, and she felt bolder, more empowered with lust.

“Sit down, Kara.”

Kara sat. 

They regarded each other from opposite ends of the couch. Kara had never sat so far away before. Now it was like she was afraid she would catch fire if she came close enough to Lena, and she fidgeted, staring straight ahead as her leg bounced with nervous energy. There was a crackling, thunderstorm of tension in the air between them. 

Lena spoke first. “So.”

Kara turned, slightly, to look at her. Lena felt a thrill to see that her pupils were still wide and dark. “It appears you’re in rut,” she said, as casually as she could manage, under the circumstances. 

Kara jumped, as if she didn’t quite trust the words out loud, but she nodded, guiltily and quickly. “Uh, yes. Yes.  _ God _ , Lena, I’m sorry, this is so awkward. I should have applied for leave.”

“Yes, you should have. It’s important for all employees to take advantage of government-mandated cycle benefits,” Lena told her, but her mind was elsewhere. She found herself breathing heavily, and tried to dial it back, fiddling with the hem of her skirt.  “I didn’t know you were an alpha.”

Kara blushed so hard that Lena almost laughed. It was the most un-alpha-like response she could imagine, but, of course, it was Kara. The Kryptonian contained multitudes. Whole universes, even. 

“I didn’t tell you, I know. I don’t exactly tell many people. Alex is the only one who knows.” She mumbled, and looked at her hands, folded in her lap. “I’m usually on better suppressants but the lab—my  _ pharmacist _ is having some kind of… supply problem, so it’s difficult right now.”

_ Translation: the DEO usually has me on Kryptonian-strength alpha blockers, and now they’ve had some kind of emergency and I’m out.  _

Lena was fairly good at parsing the truth from Kara’s bad attempts at coverups. She nodded, as if she was being sympathetic, while her mind raced ahead.  _ Of course they’d keep her on super-strength blockers. No wonder I never knew. The DEO can hardly afford to have their prized alien flying around National City in a blind haze looking to bang some lucky omega every six weeks.  _ She shuddered, both in some kind of primitive jealousy, and in desire.  _ Oh God, she’s really affecting me.  _

“Does your… pharmacist know what the supply problem may be?” Lena tried to dance as delicately as she could around it, but she was already guessing. 

Kara avoided her eyes. “Some… transport issues, I guess.”

_ All those recent anti-alien protests. They probably can’t get access to whatever they were using to synthesize a safe Kryptonian pheromone blocker. Damn them, I could help with that. If only they’d trust me enough to ask.  _

She reached across the couch for Kara’s hand. There was instant electricity from her fingertips, and the warmth spread inside of her lower belly, pooling between her legs. Kara looked at her hand as if it were a lifeline, and then swallowed, slowly, raising her eyes to meet Lena’s at last. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling. I had an unscheduled heat once and it was just awful.” 

She’d only meant to be sympathetic, but mentioning her heat, no matter the context, was a mistake. Kara’s hand tightened on hers for a moment and her eyes flashed, thickly black with desire. A low growl rumbled between her teeth and it made Lena’s bones shiver in appreciation. 

Kara, however, blinked hard and dropped Lena’s hand as if it was on fire, as her irises returned with their honest blue. “Lena, I think you’d better not touch me, just to be safe.”

“Oh.” Lena withdrew her hand to her lap. “I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be.” Kara’s tone was anguished, even if she couldn’t look Lena in the eye. “ _ I’m  _ sorry. This is just really difficult right now and I-I think I should—“ 

“I could help you, if you want.” Lena heard herself say, as if from far away. 

There was a prolonged silence. Kara just stared at her, mouth agape, and Lena blinked, slowly, as she realized she’d spoken aloud. There was no use trying to put the cat back in the bag, however. The words were out there. Kara was clearly processing her offer, albeit slowly. 

Finally, she spoke. “You mean like…?”

“Sex.” Lena put a fine point on it, rather primly. Her trembling fingers curled at the edge of her skirt were the only indication of her inner feelings. That and her pounding heart, which she knew Kara could hear. “I’m an omega, Kara.”

“I know.” Kara fumbled for her glasses, and her fingers twisted the wire of her frames into a quick, complicated pretzel. She stared at them for a moment and then tried to flatten out her handiwork, blushing fervently. “I-I know, Lena.”

“So then surely you understand the point of my biology is to… assist… alphas in matters like these?” Lena found it was easier to be clinical, as usual, rather than give in to the shaky, fluttery feeling in her chest. She schooled her eyes demurely, even as Kara’s rounded. 

Kara looked mildly alarmed. “Lena, that’s not the only thing that omegas—“

She held up a hand, interrupting Kara’s attempt at chivalry. “I don’t need a lecture in status equality, Kara, although I do appreciate your kindness.” 

“Lena.” Kara looked stricken. Torn. There was clear desire in her eyes, but also concern, and guilt. Lena understood. 

_ She doesn’t want me to think this means a relationship. It’s just sex for her.  _

“Kara, you don’t have to  _ date _ me or anything.” She reassured her friend, trying for a casual smile. “I know you’re straight. This is just...me offering you a helping hand, if you want one. Think of it like a back scratch for a really bad itch.”

More anguish in Kara’s features. Her brow furrowed and she looked almost pained. “Lena, I’m not—“

“Lena?” Jess leaned into the doorway, holding the door ajar. “I’m sorry to interrupt but the Japanese investors started the Skype conference earlier than I thought.”

“Thank you, Jess. I’ll be there shortly.” She nodded reassuringly at her assistant, who seemed genuinely apologetic, and turned back to Kara, who appeared to be going through some kind of massive inner turmoil on the other end of the couch.

“Just think it over.” She told Kara, rising. “Let me know at the end of the day. I’m here to help, Kara, I really am.”

Some of the sincerity in her voice must have gotten through to Kara because she finally raised her eyes to Lena’s and stood up, shifting from side to side. “I will.” 

“Good.” Lena smiled, and favored Kara with one of her softer looks. “It’ll be alright, Kara. In any case, I know now who to put down for rut leave in the HR books.”

Kara wasn’t listening. She was looking at Lena, strangely, as if considering. Then she rushed forward, unexpectedly, and crushed Lena into one of her usual bear hugs. Lena let out a surprised squeak, but melted into the embrace much easier than she would with anyone else. Kara smelled so  _ good _ , and she was so  _ warm… _

Lena barely bit back the moan that threatened to rip from her lips as she felt the length of Kara’s body press against her amidst a swirl of pheromones. There was a distinct stiffness poking into her lower belly, and for a moment her brain was mystified, lost in the fog of the embrace, until she realized and her eyes popped open. Unfortunately, it seemed to occur to Kara at the same moment, because she coughed, quickly, and withdrew. 

“I’ll see you this afternoon,” she told Kara, but the alpha only nodded. Her eyes were almost all pupil, again. It sent another answering thrill through Lena’s spine. 

After Kara left, she sagged against her desk, barely managing to stay upright.  _ This day is going to take forever.  _

_                                                                              ***** _

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did promise smut in this chapter, right? ;) 
> 
> I miiiight have overdelivered.

As it turned out, several things needed her attention in the post-lunch hours, and Lena was kept mercifully busy long enough for the clock to inch its way to 5pm. She wasn’t entirely distracted, however. Every few minutes or so, her eyes wandered over to Kara’s desk. And, almost as many times, she caught the alpha reporter staring back at her, face unreadable. 

She didn’t allow herself to hope. That was a silly, un-Luthor-like emotion and she wasn’t much given to it, anyway. But she did feel  _ want,  _ low and cramping in her belly, every time her eyes met Kara’s through the glass.

When at last the office began to empty, Lena dawdled at her desk, pretending to consider some reports as she waited. She murmured a pleasant goodbye to Jess, and watched through the corner of her eye as Kara slowly packed up her bag, shouldering it with a potent pause as she lingered by the desk. For a moment, Lena’s heart dropped as she imagined Kara simply walking out, but the reporter just remained motionless for a long, breathless instant, and then, resolutely, turned to walk to Lena’s door.

Lena couldn’t help herself: she met Kara halfway, rising to sling her coat over her arm as she lifted her purse from a chair. A flurry of emotions roiled in her chest, nervous anticipation chief amongst them. She still figured Kara would likely say no to her offer, choosing to politely maintain something about their friendship, that was intrinsically caught between this moment and the one that could or would not come after. But the tension between them right now was crackling and thick, and it lured Lena to it like a red flag to a bull.

“Hello, Kara.” She tried for a warm smile. “Walk me to my car?”

“Lena.” The alpha’s voice was all gravel, and it sent a shudder through Lena’s thighs that she hoped wasn’t visible with x-ray vision. Kara cleared her throat and tried again. “I—yes, of course.”

The silence hung heavy and potent in the elevator, too. Lena knew enough not to rush, to let Kara speak when she was ready, but still, it was becoming increasingly difficult. Her blood thrummed with nerves and the smell of the alpha’s rutting call was stronger in the closed box of the elevator. It made her knees weak and it took everything in Lena not to press herself to the cold metal doors, hike her skirt up above her stockings and  _ submit _ . Only the knowledge that she may not be what Kara wanted kept her from action, and she bit her lip so hard that she tasted copper blood. Lena could feel Kara looking at her, almost curiously, but she closed her eyes and swayed, slightly, until a cheerful  _ ping _ alerted her to the fact that they were on the parking level. 

On any given day, she preferred to drive herself to work in the sleek black 1962 Jaguar Roadster that had been Lex’s ‘baby’. It gave her a selfish satisfaction to tool around in the car that Lillian had indulgently gifted her brother on a Christmas in which Lena had received a dietary plan in lieu of presents. She did keep it in cherry condition, though—Lex would have expected nothing less. 

Today, however, she almost wished she’d had her driver bring her instead. Then, at least, she’d have had an excuse to linger in the lot with Kara while they waited for Tom to bring the Rolls around. Unfortunately, however, her car was nearest to the elevators, parked neatly underneath the placard that read her name. A perk of being CEO that had never plagued her until this day, when she’d almost have preferred to walk a mile in heels just to get Kara to spit it out. 

Instead, she strolled to the Jag, keys in hand, and drew her shoulders back, preparing. 

“So. Kara. Are you coming home with me?” She asked, faux-casually. “Or have you decided against my offer? No hard feelings.” She lifted her lips in what she hoped was a friendly, inviting smile, but couldn’t resist a final tease. “Aside from what’s in your pants, I mean.”

Kara’s eyes went wide and wild, and she ducked, flushing a violent shade. That was safe ground. Lena’s smile deepened—she always felt better when she could see she’d made Kara blush. It was easier to manage than the way the alpha had been looking at her earlier, in her office. Like she wanted to eat her whole. She shivered, briefly, and managed to refocus as Kara fidgeted.

“Are you sure about this?” 

Lena was more than a little surprised. There was a hesitancy and a halting quality to Kara’s voice that implied she was leaning on the side of saying  _ yes.  _ Arousal made the blood beat strong in her ears and she had to clear her throat before she was able to continue. 

“Kara, it’s fine.” She reached for the alpha’s fingers, and found her hand unusually warm, even by Kryptonian standards. “And—God, you’re burning up.”

Kara ignored her. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this just because we’re friends.” She swallowed. “Or, just because you’re an omega.” 

_ There it is. She’s feeling guilty.  _ Lena frowned and rubbed Kara’s knuckles in what she hoped was a soothing, rather than stimulating, gesture. “Kara, of  _ course _ I want to help you because we’re friends, but I don’t feel obligated, no. I don’t offer to let _all_ my friends knot me.” 

Kara choked, and her other hand flew instinctively to her glasses. “Well, that’s. I. Uhm.”

“Relax.” Lena stifled the urge to laugh, and stepped closer, letting her spare arm drift around Kara’s waist, as if they were ballroom dancing. “It’s just nature, Kara. Biology makes me uniquely suited to help you. And I want to help you. I  _ really _ do.”

She might’ve injected a bit too much sincerity in her voice, because Kara looked at her with those wide, awestruck eyes, and Lena felt a quiver in her lower body. Something tugged in her, wanting to step closer, tilt her chin up and tug Kara’s mouth down to hers. She resisted, barely. 

“And you… you promise we can stay friends? After, well, _everything_?” Kara’s voice cracked in the middle. Lena felt the pang of it in her chest. She managed to keep herself from betraying any emotions as she nodded.

“Of course.”

“Good.” Kara’s eyes were desperately serious. “Because I don’t ever want to lose you, Lena. Not for… this. Not for anything.”

She couldn’t hide the way that those words tugged at her, but deep down, she knew that Kara meant them in a different way than what her stupid, foolish heart desired. Still, it was nice to be wanted. Needed. Even if only by a friend. 

She nodded and managed to get the keys engaged with the door before her brain could convince her to rush Kara for a kiss. 

                                                                               ***

The car ride over to her apartment was painfully awkward. Silent, aside from the pleasant, murmuring tones of NPR—and Lena finally wrenched the dial off about ten minutes in. There was traffic, of course, being after 5pm on a Friday, and it was absolute murder. Lena was definitely regretting the decision not to put the top down, as Kara’s scent was even more powerful up close and personal in the car than it had been in the elevator. 

She didn’t know, precisely, but she had a feeling it had something to do with her hand on the gear shaft. 

After the fourth hurried glance in her direction, Lena cleared her throat, meaningfully. Kara’s eyes darted guiltily back to her face. “So,” she began. “If I had known traffic was going to be this bad, I may have actually let you fly me home this time.”

There it was. Out in the open. She waited for it to land on Kara, keeping her gaze firmly pinned on the road, while subtly checking in the rear view. The alpha nodded distractedly, as if she hadn’t heard, and then it hit her. Kara’s bright blue eyes widened with almost comic speed, and she jerked her head towards Lena so quickly that her glasses fell down her nose. She pushed them up, hurriedly, but her mouth opened and shut several times before she managed to speak. 

“You…  _ knew?” _

Lena nodded. Kara goggled at her for several more seconds before she could connect her next thoughts enough to speak, and when she did, her tone was plaintive. 

“But… but why were you so mean to me all those times I came to you as Supergirl?”

“Why were you so distrustful of  _ me _ and my  _ motives  _ every time you came to me as Supergirl?” Lena shot back, tightly. 

There was another prolonged, wounded silence, as omega and alpha in unison stared glumly ahead at the back of a Sysco food service truck. The swirl of pheromones didn’t help, especially since the alpha’s bruised, rutting ego clearly needed soothing and Lena’s omega didn’t quite want to give it to her. Not yet. 

Finally, she sighed. 

“Yes. I knew you were Supergirl. You came to my office with _Clark_ _Kent_. I have three PhDs, Kara—give me some credit.” 

Kara fiddled with the end of her seatbelt. When she spoke, her voice was reflective, as if she was speaking to herself. “I spoke up for you, you know. When Alex and everyone wanted to assume you were evil. I always spoke up for you. But they always needed me to  _ use _ my relationship with you. I wanted there to be something about your relationship with me— _ Kara _ —to be real, and not about  _ using _ . And now…”

“And now?” Lena prompted, quietly, knuckles white on the steering wheel. 

“And now I feel like I’m using you again. Just, in a different way.” 

Kara couldn’t have possibly known—judging by the unhappy tone in her voice—of the effect that her choice of words would have on Lena’s oversaturated omega senses. She shuddered, and had to shift in the seat to avoid ruining the fine leather below with a puddle.  _ Thighs together,  _ she thought, grimly.  _ I could never look the detail shop guys in the face again.  _

“You’re not using me, Kara,” she finally managed when her breathing returned to normal. “And even if you were… let’s just say I’m into it.” She gave a short, sharp laugh, intended to convey far more breeziness than it actually did. 

Kara went stiff and still in the passenger seat. “Oh.  _ Oh _ . Okay.”

_ Thighs together,  _ Lena chanted mentally, and the next few minutes passed in merciful silence. 

“So, um.” Kara cleared her throat. “Alex gave me a contraceptive.”

That was good to hear. Lena straightened. “Well, that solves one problem. I was going to ask how you felt about pulling out. Or anal. I know you’ve mostly been with males before, so I could—“

There was a loud, unpleasant wrenching noise, and a chunk of the passenger seat door had crumpled into something resembling a croissant. Lena shot Kara a look, and the alpha cringed, releasing her death grip on the door handle. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” Lena sighed and let her thighs relax.  _ Guess I’ll need to visit the shop after all.  _

“Have you done that?” Kara’s voice had gone strangely squeaky. 

“Done what?” 

“A-anal.”

Lena shot Kara another Look, this one including an arched brow. “Kara, I’m a healthy twenty-nine year old omega with what _used_ to be an active sex life. Don’t kink-shame me.”

“I’m not!” Kara appeared to swallow around her tongue. “I-I’m not.”

“Relax.” Lena let her hand drop from the gear shift for moment to squeeze Kara’s thigh. “I’m kidding with you. But yes. I have done. That.” 

“Oh.”

After another prolonged pause, Lena let her fingers drift back to the gear shift. “So. You’ve got a DEO-approved condom, I take it?”

Kara swallowed. “Well. Not exactly. It’s a pill, but it’s… for you, I guess. A-after.”

“Oh fantastic.” Lena gripped into the leather with irritation. “I imagine the side effects of that will be  _ lovely.  _ And you were going to just—what? Drop it into some poor omega’s coffee the next day?”

Kara looked anguished. “When Alex gave it to me this morning. I told her I didn’t want to give it to  _ anyone _ ,” she explained, voice tight. “I was just going to go home and lock myself up and—-well, you know. But then you offered and… I just want you to be safe, Lena.”

Lena was taken aback, just a little, by the earnestness in Kara’s tone. She tried not to let it show. “Well, thank you. I’m glad we don’t have to stop for some alpha condoms, anyway.” 

Kara nodded, quietly, but her focus was elsewhere. Lena cleared her throat. “Hey. Kara, it’s okay. I still want to help.” 

She dropped her hand from the gear again to touch Kara’s thigh, but misjudged her aim. She ended up squeezing far higher on the alpha’s slacks than planned, and her knuckles bumped into something that was firm and warm. And  _ big.  _ She removed her hand quickly, just as Kara shifted uncomfortably next to her, and stared ahead at the traffic that was finally easing up ahead, cheeks flaming. 

The rest of the ride was, thankfully, quick. 

And then they were standing together in front of Lena’s door, having braved a second elevator ride together. The tension in the air was thick, almost breathing beside them. A third entity to their silence. 

Lena finally went for the door just as Kara ducked her head, almost looking like she was going for a kiss. They sidestepped each other, and the alpha flushed, looking at the ceiling as if it was suddenly very interesting.  _ Was she—? _ Lena filed that information away and opened the door with her thumb print, trying to ignore the shaking in her thighs. 

Kara followed her into the apartment and the door slid into a magnetic lock behind them with a hollow click. Lena inhaled, breathing in the scent of Kara’s alpha mingled with her own familiar apartment smells of lemon-scented cleaning spray and White Opium perfume. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed the mix of them. Kara stepped behind her, almost as if she wanted to put her hands on Lena’s shoulders, but she only shuffled awkwardly, as if she didn’t know quite what to do with herself. 

Together, they stared at the white expanse of kitchen and couches, and the brightly-twinkling National City skyline, until it seemed as if Lena was going to go crazy.

She turned back to Kara. “Do you want a drink?”

Kara shook her head, but wet her lips. “Just water.” 

Lena got herself a scotch, anyway, and sipped it with some relief as her other hand grabbed a water bottle for Kara from the fridge. She noted, with some trepidation, that her fingers shook. 

“So, I’ve never been with an alpha.” Lena dropped the second bomb casually enough, as she pressed the water bottle to Kara’s stunned chest. “How does this work?”

“I-I don’t know, I haven’t had an unsuppressed rut since I was 13, and I’ve never—wait, you’ve  _ never _ been with an alpha?”

Lena rolled her eyes. “I’ve been with betas, mostly, Kara. I’m not inexperienced, just in this area.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be…” Kara trailed off, again. She tilted her head, and Lena didn’t like how her eyes had focused so tightly. “But  _ why _ would you offer to do this?”

Now it was Lena’s turn to stutter. “Well, I…I’m your friend, Kara,” she tried, lamely, and then wet her lips in the scotch to give herself some courage. “I mean, that is to say, I know you. And I know you’d be cool about it, unlike some.”

That did the trick. Kara’s intense gaze relaxed, and her shoulders loosened. She took a sip from the water bottle. “I understand that.”

“So, how do we start?” Lena motioned to the couch. “Do you want me to bend over that? I’m not sure which position is best for the mount—“

A spout of water exploded across Lena’s expensive tile countertop. Kara was red-faced and coughing, but already reaching for the paper towels. Lena waved her away. “I got it, Kara, it’s fine.”

“Lena.” Kara choked out. “You’ve got to stop saying things like that to me.” 

Lena stopped mid-mop with a handful of paper towels. “Why?” She turned slowly toward the alpha, letting the soggy mess drop into the sink. Her fingers twitched on her glass and she set that down too. 

“Because you’re turning me on,” Kara told her, with quiet, painful, honesty. The alpha stepped closer, and there was suddenly very little breathing room in the kitchen. “And I’m afraid I’m going to lose control.”

“Yeah?” Lena wasn’t sure she recognized her own voice. It had gone high and breathy. She felt brazen, wild. A stranger in her own skin. Heat prickled over her thighs and ran up her spine. “Maybe I want you to.”

There was a silence that stretched between them like an unrolling rug. An invitation. 

Kara kissed her. It was a mad, desperate rush, and she knocked the water bottle completely over. A flood spread across the kitchen floor, but Lena was too busy frantically kissing back to care. She dragged Kara’s mouth back to hers as the alpha tried, in vain, to right the bottle. “Leave it, just leave it Kara, I don’t—“

Teeth knocked against tongues, and the force of it was awkward, but the passion was raw. Kara slowed the pace of her darting mouth down, stroking along Lena’s tongue and licking into her mouth with startling authority. Lena melted, leaning back against the counter. Strong, wide hands curved around her ass and she moaned into the kiss, feeling weightless when Kara lifted her up onto the counter and started working on the buttons of her shirt, pausing in between kisses to make groans of appreciation into her collarbone and her sternum, lips grazing the skin there like a hot brand. 

Lena had never felt so urgent, so needy, just from kissing, and there was a siren going off in her brain warning her to slow down, regain control. She couldn’t listen, however, over the pounding of blood in her ears. The desire that sang  _ Kara, Kara, Kara  _ like a holy incantation. 

Kara was still kissing her when she fumbled for the zipper of her pencil skirt, tearing it down and off her ankles. And then Lena was left in only her panties and high heels, her shirt hanging open and her chest heaving so hard that her bra was hardly hiding anything at this point. The crotch of her panties was soaked and she pushed her hips greedily into Kara’s waist, feeling the pressure build in her lower belly. It was shameful, embarrassing how wet she was already, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop.

Every time she inhaled for a calming breath she only filled her lungs with more _Kara_. 

Several things were revealed in that first, breathless kiss against the counter, with Lena’s thighs pressed painfully into Italian marble. One was that Kara was a remarkably good kisser, and she didn’t seem to need to come up for air as much as a human. The other was that, in between kisses, Kara liked to talk. Babble, really. A constant stream of praise about how Lena looked, tasted, and felt. 

It was breathtakingly hot. Lena had to gasp for breath every time Kara growled out another hurried whisper of praise. She felt like she was going crazy—making out had never worked her up this much before. Not with Veronica, Jack, anyone. But here she was, grinding hard against the alpha’s stomach, making a ruination of her good button-up, and she didn’t care. Didn’t even care that there was a perfectly good bed just down the hallway, and that was new. She’d never had sex anywhere but a bed, with lights off, and sheets pulled up. Kara was making her want to try out every surface in her living room until they coined a new meaning to the term ‘open concept’. 

“Lena.” Kara’s breath was hot on her neck. “Lena, I can’t slow down. I will later… I’m sorry, I just need—“

“Don’t.” She grabbed the alpha’s ponytail, tugged it loose and thumbed through smooth blonde waves, feeling the sweat close to her scalp. “Don’t say sorry. Just take your pants off and fuck me.”

Kara released a broken moan into her collarbone, and then two sets of hands were hurriedly working at the front of her chinos, trying to get the zipper down. Lena had to bat Kara’s hands away in order to get anything done—the alpha was clearly overcome and too busy humping into her legs to focus, and Lena liked the cut of these pants on Kara’s behind too much to allow her to tear them off. 

Lena’s deft fingers released the button fly, and popped the zipper down with ease, humming happily to herself as she grazed the damp cotton of Kara’s boxers, smeared with pre-cum. “I’m gonna take you out slowly,” she warned the alpha, even as Kara whined into her neck. “Then you can go in once I say I’m ready. Okay?” 

“Okay.” Kara nodded frenziedly into her pulse, mouthing the skin there. “Okay, okay, okay…”

Lena smirked, feeling a modicum of control return. That was good, things were back on track. She shucked Kara’s pants the rest of the way off of her hips, and the alpha carelessly kicked them into the widening puddle on the floor. That was a problem for later, though. Lena slipped her fingers into the slit at the front of Kara’s Calvins, feeling purposeful.

All sense of control and confidence left when she drew Kara’s cock out, however. The tip was almost purple-red, swollen with need and leaking heavily, and her shaft pulsed hard in Lena’s hand. Kara was definitely bigger than anything she’d taken before, and her inner omega had her releasing a soft whimper before she could clamp down the impulse. Her fingers wanted to stroke, to wrap around it firmly and pump that pressure towards the reddened tip, and she found herself giving in before she knew quite what was happening. 

“Lena.” Kara nipped under her jaw, and her brain came back into sharp focus. “I won’t— _ hff _ —won’t last long if you do that.”

She nodded, jerkily, and cleared her throat. “Kara.” Her voice was a croak. “Can you… can you take my panties off?”

The alpha moaned long and low against her neck, and Lena shuddered. “I can do it if you—“

“No, no, let me…”

Kara’s fingers shakily found the edge of her La Bruna lace, and began to tug down. Lena moaned along with her at the sensation brushing down her thighs, and kicked the expensive fabric away with one heel pointed. But Kara was preoccupied, lost, with her fingers tentatively poised at the edge of Lena’s labia. She slipped in, stroking in an unfocused line up to Lena’s clit, and a muffled curse followed the wet glide of her finger pads.  

“You’re so wet.” 

Kara sounded in awe, almost reverent. Lena bit her lip against a filthy, uncontrolled whine. In lieu of response, she guided Kara closer, tugging on her boxers and fisting the length of her until the alpha huffed with impatience. Lena soothed her with one hand rubbing circles on her thigh, as she rocked her hips closer, scooting her ass across the marble until her legs could lock around the alpha’s waist.

The blunt tip fitted against her entrance, dragging as Kara’s hips stuttered in excitement. Lena moaned, feeling her throat tighten, and she had to focus to bring Kara against her once more, guiding. The alpha’s hips gave an exploratory nudge, and her hand fell away, gripping into Kara’s hipbone as she felt the first stretch. Her eyes wanted to roll back in her head, but she fought it. 

“Can I go in now?” Kara’s breath came in urgent pants. 

“Yes,” Lena breathed, pushing her hips forward to meet Kara’s hesitant thrust. The breach was swift, and sudden, and the stretch made her cry out, sharply. She pushed at Kara’s hips, keeping her back until she could adjust. 

“Are you okay?” Kara stopped all movement, even though Lena could see in the strained quiver of her muscles how much it must’ve pained her. 

“Yes. Just go slow. You’re  _ big.”  _

Lena’s words were halting, but she moaned out the last, feeling Kara slowly nudge forward again. Kara groaned at that, vibrating with need, and her hands braced on the counter, digging into the marble as if it were handfuls of butter. Lena’s eyes closed hard at the  _ strength _ in those hands. 

“Go slow,” she repeated, and put her hands on Kara’s broad shoulders. A signal of trust. “Go easy on me.”

“Lena.” Her name dropped from Kara’s open, panting mouth like a prayer, and her hips rolled forward. True to her word, it was slow as molasses, and just as thick. 

Lena’s pulse fluttered and her mouth dropped open, unable to stop breathing out moans with every aching inch. She curled her toes and arched her back. “Oh God,  _ Kara.” _

Kara hissed with pleasure when their pelvises finally slotted together and she was fully sheathed inside. “You feel so good. Perfect.” She jogged her hips, testing, and Lena encouraged her with a sigh, running her fingers through the alpha’s hair.  _ “Rao, _ you’re tight.”

“Didn’t I tell you it was my first time?” Lena tried to joke, but another slow thrust had her choking back a warbling cry. “Okay, fuck.  _ Fuck _ . Okay, you can fuck me now.”

“Thank you,” Kara rasped into her neck, and sucked hard, leaving a dark bruise Lena knew she’d have to cover later. It didn’t matter now, though. Kara’s hips were moving. 

The pace built steadily, like an oncoming tsunami, never breaking course. It was good, so good, and  _ hard _ . Lena didn’t know how hard she had needed it, until Kara was the one giving it to her, apparently. Kara gripped the marble handholds she’d made out of Lena’s once-immaculate Italian countertop, and whispered simple praise that set every nerve ending of the omega’s previously-reserved body on fire. 

“You feel so good, Lena.  _ Hff _ . Taking it so well. So gorgeous…. _ beautiful… _ ”

Lena hadn’t ever known sex to feel this good. Normally it was quite the perfunctory affair—do whatever her partner wanted, as was expected of her as the omega, and then quietly take care of herself in the bathroom once they were asleep. She had never been this wet, this slick, and it was dripping down her thighs, making obscene noises with every relentless slap of Kara’s hips. The alpha’s cock was so big it made her hiss every time she felt Kara plunge back inside, but, strangely, the  _ pressure _ of it ramming into a spot just above her entrance was maddeningly perfect. 

_ I’m going to come. She’s going to make me come. Oh fuck. Oh Christ.  _

Lena opened her mouth to tell Kara just that, but all that came out was a scream. Her own voice sounded so unfamiliar that she almost didn’t recognize herself: high, breathy, pornographic. “Ohgodohgodohgod— _ Kara!” _

Kara released a savage growl below her ear that was so unexpected that it sent Lena wailing right over the edge of the first of what would be the greatest orgasms of her life, until that point. The pressure in her belly exploded into tendrils of white heat that raced through her spine, all the way up to her fingertips. She could only gasp and cry and kick her heels, clinging to Kara through it all, as the alpha fucked her ruthlessly through her climax, prolonging it. 

When she came back to herself, drawing ragged breaths, she heard that the insistent panting next to her ear had increased in volume, and Kara was almost whimpering in need. The alpha’s hips still snapped punishingly into her own, but now there was something blocking her way, something stopping Kara from getting herself fully back inside. Lena looked down their sweaty, heaving bodies and blinked, dumbly.  _ The knot. Oh right.  _

Somehow, in all of her meticulous thoughts since offering herself to Kara as a de facto sex toy, she’d forgotten about the knotting process. She knew what was supposed to happen, of course—Lena was no slouch during Omega Health in boarding school—but knowing that and actually feeling the persistent pressing of something heavy and  _ too big  _ at her entrance were two different animals. This was going to take some mental persuasion, and she didn’t think she could do it on the counter. 

“Kara.” She nipped at the alpha’s ear, trying to help her to focus. “Take me to the couch. It’ll be easier if I can lay down.”

At first, she didn’t think her words had even had an impact on the Kryptonian, despite her super hearing. Kara just whined and huffed, trying to get closer as if she couldn’t understand Lena anymore. But when she was, once again, brought up short in her thrusts, the haze slipped from her brow, and she shook her head, as if to clear it, and curled her hands under Lena’s thighs.

“Hold on,” she grunted.

Lena leaned forward and grabbed Kara’s sweaty neck, holding on obediently. She didn’t actually know if she had it in her to walk, so being carried was fine. It was also clear that the alpha didn’t want to remove herself from the warm, welcoming heat for even a single second, as she took pains with each halting step to keep herself inside. Lena let out a grateful moan when Kara lowered her back onto the fine leather surface of her couch—which she had a feeling was about to get thoroughly ruined in a way that no amount of upholstery work could replace. But that was well worth it, in her opinion. 

Kara climbed awkwardly on top, and Lena gasped at the jostling of the thickness inside her, making her insides sing with renewed energy. Her clit was already throbbing again, pulsing with each movement. No one had ever made her come once, let alone  _ twice _ , from penetration alone, but Kara seemed well on her way to breaking several of Lena’s personal records. 

The knot was there, bulging and insistent as ever, pressing firmly into Lena’s opening with such inelegance that Lena knew Kara was losing her ability to think clearly. It was daunting, sure, but she  _ wanted  _ it, deep in her primitive self, with all the associated surges of omega pheromones. She could feel herself fluttering and tensing, preparing to open for it. The thought sent another flood of slick wet down her thighs, coating the bulging knot in her excitement. 

She slung her arms around Kara’s neck again, urging her closer with the bent angle of her legs. “I’m ready for you,” she breathed. “You can go all the way in now.” 

The alpha groaned hard into her neck. “Are you sure? Does it— _ fuck _ —does it hurt?”

“I’m okay,” Lena gasped, feeling Kara’s teeth instinctively grazing her pulse. “D-don’t bite for real, okay?”

Kara released a long breath into her skin. “Yeah. Can I—?”

“Yes,  _ please _ Kara.”

And then the agonizing stretch began. It was unrelenting. Lena swore, and arched, and her nails dug into Kara’s neck, but the alpha only grunted and kept going, kissing whispered apologies into Lena’s throat. 

Lena released a sob, suddenly terrified she would tear in two, that she would never be able to take it—and then Kara’s clumsy, broad fingertips swept over her clit. The stimulation was too soft and not as direct as she needed, but it did the trick. She cried out, helplessly, as a river pulsed from her opening, coating the thinly-stretched lips, and the extra lubrication allowed the next weak thrust to bring the knot fully inside. 

“Oh my  _ God _ —!” Lena was sobbing through another orgasm before she fully realized what was happening. Her body convulsed, and her cunt spasmed around the intrusion, molding to it and fluttering around it in a helplessly instinctive effort to coax Kara to release. 

Which she did. Noisily, and exultingly, groaning into Lena’s neck as a seemingly-endless torrent of warm, thick fluid burst from her tip in spurts, hitting Lena’s cervix with each hot pulse. It drove Lena into another weak climax, and she shuddered her way through it, feeling each jet of cum as it splashed into her walls. Kara moaned her name, brokenly, and gave a few more sloppy thrusts, until she collapsed onto Lena’s chest, breathing hard. 

And still, the flood did not stop, until Lena was sure there was no room inside of her. Kara just kept emptying and emptying, giving little whines with each steady pulse. The knot kept it all in securely, though, and there was a deep, primal peace in that, which kept Lena still until at last the alpha’s orgasm ended.

Her limbs slackened, and she nosed into Kara’s sweaty hair, breathing in the alpha’s scent as her heartbeat slowly returned to normal alongside the treble-beat of the Kryptonian heart she could feel thudding into her chest.

                                                                                      ***


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. Here’s where it gets really smutty. You’ve been warned: this is the anal chapter. And yet there’s still so much more to go. 
> 
> Big thank you to everyone, subscribers and readers alike, for your support last month! I enjoy writing this story for all of you. <3

Lena took stock of their situation once she’d recovered enough to lift her head. Kara was still mostly dressed in her blue shirt, with the white undershirt showing through a few misplaced buttons. Her boxers were trapped around her knees, and she had somehow lost her shoes but kept her socks. It was strangely endearing. 

She herself was sure she looked an absolute wreck. Her careful bun was loose, letting tendrils of hair cling wetly to her neck, and her makeup had to be smeared all over. She saw evidence of that in the lipstick marks all over Kara’s face and neck, which gave her a strange, tingling pride. Her blouse was ripped wide open, exposing her bra, and her panties were lost to the kitchen floor. She’d lost one heel in the transition to the couch, and the other only clung by a vague hope—she kicked it free with a sigh. All in all, she felt absolutely debauched.

But no. Debauched came later, when the knot softened enough that they’d finally stripped naked in between hasty kisses, and made their way to Lena’s bedroom, knocking over several tastefully-minimalist items of furniture on their way.

_ Debauched _ came when Kara was haltingly instructing Lena to open her mouth, as she knelt on the virginal white of her bed.  _ Debauched _ was the way Lena could taste herself mingled with Kara’s cum, and moaned around the alpha’s cock so loud that she could feel her throat vibrate around the smooth length. And  _ debauched _ was definitely the way to describe how she felt after, breathless and throat-sore, swallowing the rest of Kara’s release while she milked the heavy knot with both hands—until it spilled onto her breasts.

And yet none of that held a candle to how good it felt when Kara guided her to all fours on the bed and slipped into her from behind.

“Fuckfuckfuck,” she chanted, as she clung to the headboard for dear life. Kara’s hands on her hips were pulling her back for each merciless thrust. Her body felt limp and loose and her knees kept wanting to spread wider, wider, wider, on each deep plunge. _ “God, _ you’re so good at this.”

“ _ You’re _ so good, Lena.” Kara’s praise sent a thrill of heat into her core. “So fucking good at taking it. So beautiful when you bend over like this.  _ Rao. _ ”

Kara’s fingers spread over her spine, stroking with almost possessive intent. The alpha felt the curve of her breast, drawing her nipple to a hard point, and played with it, even as her other hand kept ramming Lena’s ass back for more. The omega cried out, arching herself further to get more of that delicious fullness inside.

Soon, she couldn’t hold herself upright anymore and was sobbing through two climaxes into her sheets, smearing the fine silk with saliva and lipstick. Kara just kept fucking into her, holding her hips up and grunting like an animal with each driving thrust, and it was driving her mad with instinctive desire. Somewhere, she knew this was the true purpose of the rut—this uninterrupted rhythm that shook her bones and rattled the teeth in her head. But that information was far away, along with the rational, scientific part of her brain: the one that had long ago abandoned the idea of control.

Her legs shook, and her fingers twisted in the sheets, as she was hauled back and forth for Kara’s increasingly-urgent plunges. Each time, the alpha’s broad cockhead swept over the swollen spot just inside her entrance, and she howled at the pleasure, too lost in sensation to care what she sounded like. Kara seemed just as caught up, anyway, and her thrusts were threatening to break the bed frame.

She was knotted for the second time on her belly, with Kara’s strong hand braced on her lower back, pinning her to the mattress, and this time it was easier. Her body  _ wanted _ it this way, with the alpha hovering over the back of her neck, breathing hard and fast. Lena felt the knot slide in with a slick pop, and she keened her pleasure into the sheets as Kara shuddered and groaned above her like a falling timber, until she finally collapsed onto Lena’s sweat-streaked back with a soft moan. Lena felt the comforting weight of her and breathed deeply, feeling the sound of the alpha’s heartbeat thrum against her own as the flood pulsed against her cervix.

The third, and fourth times were easier too.

By the fifth, she was riding Kara, dropping herself onto the knot at the base and teasing them both by rocking against it only halfway, before canting her hips back up. The motion was a slow, steady rise and fall, and her hips made regular swiveling figure-eights as Kara made worshipful attention to her breasts in between fervent, deep moans. She could see herself in the mirror on her closet door and it was  _ hot _ . Kara’s cock was visible for inches just before she sank down, and each time, the sight of that knot straining against her thighs kept her a shiver away from madness.

Lena had never had sex that lasted longer than a half hour, an hour at most. She had never had sex in more than one position before, either. She had  _ never _ felt this good before. There were a lot of ‘never’s being broken tonight. Everything in her body was wanton and wild, with her hair loose and swinging around her face, her breasts bouncing with the rocking of her hips. She was making ridiculous caterwauling noises, and she didn’t care. There were perks of owning the building, after all.

The sex was so good, in fact that, the quiet, logical part of Lena wondered if  _ this _ had gone far beyond just sex several hours ago, but the wider majority willed it to be silent. Lena was fine with ignoring her cold Luthor instincts, at the moment. She wasn’t willing to listen to anything but Kara.

“You look so fucking good, Lena,” Kara told her, holding her spine and thrusting from below with keen intensity. Her eyes were fierce blue, but a sharp-edged sweetness had Lena dancing right over the edge as Kara leaned down to lay a stripe of wet kisses across her nipples.

“So  _ fucking _ good, baby, yes, let it in—“

Hearing Kara swear was one thing, but combined with a pet name, rasped against her chest like a prayer...well, that was enough. Lena came, sobbing Kara’s name as the knot rocked back into place, filling her again. Kara followed right after, pumping her release up into Lena as she came with an extended sigh.

Stars wheeled behind her eyes and the world seemed to fold in. She sagged, breathing too hard to open her eyes, but Kara held her upright. Eventually, Lena felt Kara tip her back onto the blankets, with absurd tenderness, and lay kisses along her collarbone as the knot softened, allowing the alpha to slip out. Lena moaned, incoherent at the loss, and pulled her back down, melding her body along Kara’s lean, battle-scarred-and-hardened front. Kara acquiesced, and Lena closed her eyes, resting her cheek just above the alpha’s heart. 

The rapid beating soothed her. 

                                                       ****

She must’ve slept, then, because the next thing she knew, the night was fully dark. The city below her bedroom window was silent and still, in the velvet early morning hours, and the streetlights looked lonely, bathed individually in their orange glow. Her thighs were deliciously sore, and her lower half felt distinctly swollen and tender, as if she’d been through a particularly strenuous workout session. Which, she supposed, she had. 

She rolled over and caught sight of Kara, sitting up against the pillows on the far side of the bed. The alpha was watching her, eyes dark and hooded, and she smiled at Lena warmly enough, but the air still smelled strongly of alpha. Lena breathed it in, examining Kara’s tensed arms and still-darkened pupils. 

“Kryptonian stamina, huh?” she joked, rolling over to Kara’s side. 

Kara looked apologetic, but her cock was clearly hard under the sheet, tenting it with force. “I’m sorry, Lena.”

“Hush.” She stretched, moaning at the sensation, and took a smug delight in how the alpha’s eyes followed the arch of her body. “You need to go again?”

Another shamefaced look. “N-no. You’ve done enough. I know you’re probably… um…”

“Kara. You’ve just spent the last several hours fucking me. I think you can say ‘sore’.” 

“Fine.  _ Sore.  _ And I should get going, anyway.” But still, Kara lingered on the bed, making no move to get changed. 

“Do you have to?” Lena let her fingers dance along the edge of the sheet, closer to the alpha’s lap. “Supergirl emergency?”

“No.” Kara wet her lips. “Just… you were sleeping and you should probably—“

“I can sleep later,” Lena informed her, silkily. Her fingers slipped under the sheet and found Kara hot and hard for her, of course. The poor alpha was practically throbbing again. “God, your ruts are no joke. No wonder the DEO keeps you on lockdown with suppressants.”

“Y-yes.” Kara’s jaw worked, and a bead of sweat inched down her hairline. “Lena, you really don’t have to—“

Lena surprised them both by stopping her with a kiss. It was soft. When she drew back, Kara had to blink like a fish. “Kara. I think we both know I don’t do anything that I don’t want to do. Including this.” 

She gave a slow, meaningful pump of her fist, loose around the base. 

“Shit.” Kara’s nails dug identical slashes into her Egyptian cotton. “Oh damn it. Sorry, Lena— _ shit!” _

Lena had lifted her slick fingers to her mouth and cleaned them one by one with an extravagant ‘pop’. Kara’s mouth hung open, slack, even as the omega’s hand crept below the sheet and resumed her work. 

“It’s very hot when you swear,” Lena told Kara’s shell-shocked face. “But significantly less hot when you apologize. Now. I know a handjob isn’t enough. You need my mouth?”

Kara gave a hapless groan, and her eyes darted to Lena’s red lips. Her gaze dropped, however, skating down her spine to her rear end, before quickly righting back to Lena’s eyes once more. The omega smirked.  _ Oh Kara. Should have known.  _

“Or,” she purred, stroking right along the sensitive ridge at the tip of Kara’s straining cock. “Did you maybe want to fuck my ass instead?”

Kara gave a surprised, hoarse shout, and came explosively all over Lena’s still stroking fingers, dousing them in thick cum. Lena raised her eyebrows, and her smirk only grew tenfold, but she kept stroking in soothing, gentle waves to guide Kara through her release.  _ Well, that definitely confirms it.  _

“Lena,” Kara groaned, swaying into her neck like a drunken sailor. “You’re trying to kill me.”

“Well, my pussy’s too sore for you, darling.” Lena pointed out, using her spare hand to lift some blonde tendrils of hair from Kara’s panting face. “You fucked me so well, earlier. It’s the least I can do to let you finish your rut.”

Kara let out a hapless whine, nosing at Lena’s pulse. She didn’t speak for a long time. “You’d be okay with that?”

Lena caught her chin and kissed her. “Definitely.” 

She leaned back, and, as Kara’s eyes followed her every move, spread her legs, lifting her hips up. Her hand left Kara’s cock, fingers dripping with alpha cum, and—as the alpha gave a sharp intake of breath—she spread it around the rosy rim of her ass, dipping in just slightly. 

“ _ Fuck _ , Lena…” Kara sounded out of breath and lost. 

“There’s lube in my bedside cabinet.” Lena tried to keep her voice from becoming too breathy, but that was already slipping away from the realm of possibility, as she continued to tease herself with the pads of her fingers. “Be a dear and go grab the bottle? As nice as your cum is, I don’t want to rely on it alone.”

Kara scrambled to follow her instructions, and Lena lay fully back, propping her knees up. She began working herself up in slow circles—the way Veronica used to before they would use one of her toys—and felt her breath already coming in rapid pants, even before one of her fingers slipped in, stretching the tight ring with even thrusts. 

There was a cracking noise, and a muffled ‘ _ fuck _ ’. Lena lifted her head to see Kara watching her with a red face and an awestruck expression, following the glide of her fingers as she added a second. She hissed as her ass stretched around the knuckles of her hand, but willed herself to relax. Kara would definitely be larger than two fingers, after all. 

The alpha groaned and squeezed the lube bottle so hard that the top popped off to the ceiling and a veritable geyser of clear fluid followed. 

“Kara,” Lena breathily admonished, working two fingers in and out as the alpha watched with helpless focus. “Be careful. I need some of that.”

Kara made a choked noise and nearly fell forward onto the bed. “Can I...help?” 

“Yes.” Lena withdrew her fingers, wiping them carelessly on her sheets. “Is there any lube left?” 

“Y-yes.” Kara had a considerable dollop on her hand and she showed it to Lena with a chagrined smile.

“Okay. Nice and easy now. Start with one.”

The stretch of Kara’s prodding questing finger was enough to draw her breath close, even with a generous coating of mingled lube and thick alpha cum. Kara watched her finger’s slow progress with awe in her eyes, and every now and again she’d flicker her gaze back up to Lena, as if she couldn’t believe this was happening. When she added a second finger, Lena had to let out a hitching moan. Kara’s fingers felt much  _ bigger  _ than her own. 

“G-good. That’s good.” Lena’s throat closed and she worked her jaw, trying to get the words out. “ _ Hffff _ . Keep f-fucking me like that.”

“This feels amazing.” Kara told her in a hushed voice. “I never even considered—-Lena, you look so  _ beautiful _ while I’m doing this to you.”

“Oh  _ God. _ ” Lena’s head dropped back onto the pillows and she closed her eyes, tossing her head as Kara slowly scissored her fingers, thrusting in long, exploratory bursts. It felt too good. Just the right blend of that  _ burn  _ of the pain and the heat of the pleasure. “Another finger, please.”

Kara complied, letting out a hushed whine. This time, however, the burning sensation was much stronger, and she winced. Lena had to grasp wildly for Kara’s wrist, stopping her before she could push past the knuckles. “Fuck, that’s a lot. Shit. Okay, give me a minute.”

Kara looked immensely guilty. “Lena, maybe we shouldn’t—“ She started to withdraw her fingers. 

“No. Stay.” Lena curled tightly around her wrist, refusing to allow Kara to pull out. “Just….let me breathe like this for a moment.”

The alpha nodded, willingly, and Lena released her wrist, breathing hard as she tried to adjust. Seconds ticked by, and she honestly didn’t know how much time had elapsed before she was moving her hips again, trying to overcome the stretch. “Okay. You can move.”

The burning returned when Kara eased her fingers back inside, but this time her body had relaxed enough and there was enough lubrication still dripping slowly from her pussy that Kara had plenty to work with. The alpha was able to work her fingers all the way into Lena’s ass, and it was  _ good _ . So good. Lena dropped back again and let out a series of moans, rocking her hips onto Kara as the alpha pushed into her body. 

She dropped her hand down, playing with her clit as the alpha stretched her ass with agonizing tenderness. Kara seemed to fixate on it, and moaned helplessly, thrusting a bit harder as she watched Lena’s fingers glide over the swollen bud. The added friction had the omega shivering, and she twitched hard, lifting her hips. “Kara…” she sighed. 

Kara looked down at her, eyes rounded in need. “Can I…?”

“Yes.” Lena’s reply was a breathless whisper. She closed her eyes. “You can fuck my ass now.”

The fingers inside her withdrew, slowly, and the empty feeling had Lena whining. There was a shuffling on the bed, accompanied by the squeezing noise of the now-near-empty lube bottle, and then Lena felt Kara kneeling closer, moving herself into position. She allowed her legs to be draped over the alpha’s hips with a light sigh, and felt the first blunt nudge against her back entrance, almost questioningly. She moaned, deep and low, and Kara did it again, pressing a bit firmer this time. 

There was a series of these small intrusions and retreats. Kara didn’t seem quite to know what to do. Or perhaps how to get it in. After another round of hesitant nudging, Lena groaned, frustrated, and her eyes shot open. She wiggled her hand between their bodies and took hold of Kara’s erection, slippery with lube. Kara’s chin dropped to her chest and she looked down at Lena’s hand in something akin to wonder as the omega guided her inside. 

The head was the most difficult part. Lena gave a pained little hiss when it popped in, but when Kara’s eyes shot to hers in a silent question, she shook her head, breathing through her teeth. She let another few inches slip into her before she took her sticky hand away from Kara’s swollen base and put it on the alpha’s hip, giving permission. 

Kara waited until she was fully inside, watching the progress of her cock with wide blue eyes. Their hips slotted together once more, but this time the angle was different. Stiff curls of Kara’s blonde pubic hair tickled at Lena’s clit. She let out a soft sigh, feeling stretched and stuffed, and Kara began fucking her. 

Lena had been fucked in the ass before. She was generally ashamed to admit how much she liked it, but the pace was always pretty brutal. Veronica had a sadism streak about it—not that she often minded—and James...well, James was a man, beta or not, and men weren’t inclined to be overly patient when excited. Pain came with the territory, in her experience. It wasn’t like this. It had never been like  _ this.  _

This was new.

Kara was fucking into her with such absurd tenderness, staring down at Lena to gauge her reaction, and the mingled pleasure and mild pain was sending Lena into feverish fits. She couldn’t quite look away from the alpha’s eyes, no matter how her cheeks flamed, and she couldn’t bring herself to be embarrassed either. It felt too good. Unabashed, her fingers returned to her clit, and she began complementing the alpha’s thrusts with slow circles on the swollen bud. 

“I can’t believe how good this feels,” Kara told her, hoarsely. The effort of restraint was clear on her face, and her hips dropped into an erratic rhythm.“You’re so warm….so  _ tight _ …oh Lena, I’m not gonna last long, I’m s-sorry—“

“You can come.” Lena panted. “It’s okay, Kara.” Her free hand curled around Kara’s hip, aiding the alpha’s thrusts as they began to speed up. “I  _ want _ you to come, love.”

Whether it was the slip of the pet name or the permission, Lena didn’t know, but Kara threw her head back and  _ howled  _ at her words. She lurched forward and gave a few more forceful thrusts before her cock gave a heavy, shuddering pulse, and warmth filled Lena in a way that was both familiar and unfamiliar, all at once. 

When it was over, though, Kara slowly pulled out, whispering praise and kisses along Lena’s collarbone. The omega blinked, too tired to protest, but she was surprised. 

“Don’t you want to knot me?” She asked, as Kara’s fingers gently cleaned up the mess she’d made. 

Kara shook her head, and leaned down to kiss her so simply and sweetly that it took her breath away. “No. I don’t need it. It’s okay. You’ve done enough. You’ve done so well, Lena. Let me take care of you.”

Before she could open her mouth, Kara was dropping kisses down her body, moving with purpose. She hauled Lena’s limp legs over her shoulders, and bent her head between the omega’s thighs, sighing with what sounded like absolute pleasure as she nosed into Lena’s labia. Lena cried out, shocked, and almost bent double, but Kara’s hand reached out and pinned her pelvis down, grounding her. The alpha gave an exploratory long lick with the flat of her tongue, as if she was testing ground, and then she made a happy noise and dove in. 

For someone who was supposedly straight, Kara definitely had some skills in the oral sex department. More than either of her two previous partners could ever achieve—that much was plainly obvious within the first few seconds. Lena’s head was spinning long before the alpha even located her clit. Kara moaned, and Lena felt the vibrations all the way to her toes. That was enough to almost send her over the edge, but then she chanced a look farther down the bed and saw the alpha was stroking herself rapidly, unable to stop licking into Lena’s cunt even as her hand pumped on her cock with short, even bursts. 

“Kara,” she gasped, unsure of what she was even saying. She fisted the alpha’s blonde hair in both hands. “Kara,  _ fuck—“ _

“You taste like me.” The alpha told her, simply, blinking up at her from between her pale thighs, as her hand sped up its rough motions below. “I love it.” 

That was too much. Lena threw her head back and moaned, wild and low. As if in response, Kara wrapped her lips around her clit and began a slow, methodical sucking that tore the breath right from the omega’s lungs. Her orgasm rushed up on her, crawling up from her belly in each lash of the alpha’s tongue, and when it broke, she was sobbing, screaming her release, with her head tilted to the pillow, leaving lurid slashes of lipstick red. 

She felt, rather than heard, Kara come, and the alpha jerked, spurting her heavy seed into the mess of the sheets, with an extended groan. Lena was far too gone to care, and the knowledge that Kara had brought herself to orgasm just from touching her...well, that was satisfying on its own. More than worth an embarrassing trip to the dry cleaners. 

Still, Kara kept kissing her, and soothing her with soft touches, until she came down, and whimpered, trying to close her legs against the stimulus. It was all, finally, too much, and she was sore in  _ so  _ many places. Kara let her legs drop closed, and crawled up her body, pressing her to the bed. A sweet, heavy exhaustion dropped onto her limbs like a blanket and she sighed, stretching under the alpha’s weight.

Kara kept kissing her, on her shoulders and cheeks, until Lena let out a yawn and Kara finally rolled off of her body. She didn’t stray far, though. The alpha curled around Lena’s spine, protectively, and drew the one remaining unsullied blanket up over their draped bodies. She laid a soft kiss on Lena’s hair, and the omega’s eyelids fluttered on another yawn. 

“Sleep, Lena.” Kara told her, with an unreadable tone to her voice. “You did so well for me. Thank you. You can sleep now.”

As if her body had been waiting for that permission, Lena felt herself drift off, with the warmth of Kara curled around her. The last thought she had was _soft_ , and then she was out, breathing in comforting waves of alpha scent.                                                              

                                                                                     ****

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re entering Feels Town now, folks, but don’t worry! Happy endings are my kink. Any angst will soon be mitigated will much fluffiness. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone for such a positive reception on this little smutty nonsense fic!   
> But buckle up for now, the smut isn’t even close to done yet.

They haven’t talked about it since it happened. 

Lena awoke alone and sore the morning after. Blinking awake in the light of day, the memory of Kara soothing her to sleep by spooning her from behind could have been nothing more than a dream. It all could have been a dream, in fact, until she padded blearily into the kitchen for coffee, and saw the crumpled countertop, and the overturned couch, and a hasty, guilty note taped to her door.

_ I’ll pay for your car and all the other stuff. Sorry. I had to go, there’s an emergency. You were great. —K  _

There was a small plastic baggie taped to the torn paper. It contained a large blue pill. Lena blinked at it several times until the memory came back, and she wrinkled her brow, pulling the baggie down from her door. The note fluttered to the floor, and Lena almost felt like crying, for a long moment, clutching the pill tightly in her fingers and staring at her ruined apartment. 

She didn’t cry, much to her credit, but she did take several long, hitching breaths before filling a glass of water with purpose. She downed the pill, gagging at the unpleasant chalky taste, and finished off her swallow with a gulp of clear water. The bag drifted from her fingers into the sink and she stared at it for a long time. Kara’s abandoned water bottle lay next to it, and the rug beneath her feet was still damp from the flood the night before. Lena closed her eyes and tried to also close her mind to the sight. 

Then, opening them, she pivoted and, leaving the kitchen as it was, went into her enormous black-tiled shower. The interior was large enough to hose down a small horse, and the quartet of rain heads bathed Lena in welcoming heat. She hissed through her teeth at the stiffness, and examined the aftermath in the light. Her skin was mottled with bruising, from thighs to neck, and she was  _ sore _ and tender in places that hadn’t existed until yesterday. 

The clinical part of her mind wondered if she’d been affected by the Kryptonian-strength pheromone blasts she’d been bathing in yesterday, allowing her enough adrenaline not to feel the bruises as they happened. It was, she reflected, perhaps a blessing that her pelvis hadn’t fractured, but she supposed Kara was being as gentle as she could, under the circumstances. Still, it took everything in her body not to gasp at the memory of Kara filling her with relentless urgency, breath coming in heavy pants as her fingers dug into Lena’s spine. 

Kara wasn’t in the office on Monday, and the news showed flashes of blue and red darting around the city, trying to collect a series of alien weapons that had been stashed at various buildings. Lena watched the footage in her office, trying not to scan the skies with one eye. The pill had given her some nausea, and some cramping, but she was otherwise fine, especially after a round of soothing hot baths and some sauna time at the gym for her soreness. 

It was her heart that was sore now. 

The sex had been so good that Lena had almost convinced herself it hadn’t been just sex. She’d almost convinced herself that this arrangement wasn’t entirely her idea. And then she’d woken up alone and remembered that yes, Kara was  _ just _ her friend. After all, that had been what was most important to the alpha to emphasize. Their  _ friendship. _

But there wasn’t much friendship to speak of, in the weeks following what Lena would come to mentally refer to as The Incident. Kara barely made it into the office—enough that she’d had reason to send HR Stephanie after her with a stern note about the attendance policy—but when she did come in, the alpha was avoiding Lena like the plague. She kept her head down, and broke several keyboards and ornate planters in her cubicle every time Lena passed her desk, but their only interaction was a placid  _ hi, hello _ every morning. She avoided eye contact entirely and would look very interested in her shoes every time the omega tried to engage her. 

For  _ weeks.  _

No more donut runs, no more Kara greeting her with starry-eyes and a big hug. No more sushi lunches, gym classes, yoga sessions. For a woman who lived on the smallest scraps of affection from Kara for years, Lena now felt like she was starving. 

And it was terrifically,  _ painfully _ frustrating that it was  _ Kara  _ who seemed to have the biggest problem with it.  _ Kara _ , who had insisted so genuinely in the parking lot that Lena’s friendship was the only thing that mattered to her. Lena had known this was going to hurt going into it—had known she would be offered a taste of a world she would never know, and that had been enough for her, in the moment. She’d always been a 500 days of pleasure kind of girl, and she’d known from the gate that this was a sybaritic sliver of a dream. She knew it wouldn’t last.

But now, with Kara ignoring her texts and dodging her at the office, the pain was somehow  _ worse  _ than she’d anticipated. Starker, more bleak. She’d expected to have to endure Kara’s cheery friendship tinged with the bittersweet knowledge of what it felt like to have her in bed, but instead, it seemed, she wouldn’t even get  _ that _ . It was unbearable to be so alone after everything that had happened. 

Finally, Lena had enough. 

It was another Friday when she summoned Kara into her office and had Jess close the door. Lena leaned on her elbows, tenting her fingers over the polished surface of her desk like she was going to deliver a blistering retort—but in reality, it was to stop them shaking. Kara looked  _ good _ . Simple and clean in her white ruffled blouse and olive-grey slacks, with the gold wire of her glasses glinting as she fidgeted with the frames. By the same token, however, she looked uncomfortable, and her posture was nervous, slouching from side to side as she looked out the window over Lena’s shoulder, and not at what the omega was wearing. 

Lena looked down, frowning. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder burgundy sweater dress that she’d hardly even given a second thought to this morning when she put it on, but now, with Kara studiously avoiding looking at the rise of her cleavage—where last she had laid her mouth in dark, purpling marks that had lasted for days—Lena almost felt like putting on a jacket and buttoning it all the way to the top. 

“Why are you avoiding me?” Lena was done with dancing around the subject. 

Kara gave a nervous little jitter in place, still abjectly refusing to look below Lena’ neckline. Her eyes were resolutely pinned somewhere beneath her left ear. “I’m not. I—I’ve just been busy.”

“With what?” Lena raised a brow. “The city’s crime rate is low, there’s no alien weaponry trafficking anymore, and I haven’t assigned James to give you any new articles in a week.”

Kara’s throat worked, compulsively. She looked very trapped. “Well, I just….I had some things to do.” She finished, lamely.

“Things to do.” Lena echoed. 

“Yes. Look, can we maybe not talk about this  _ here _ ?” Kara’s eyes darted to the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and she looked like she’d love nothing more than to smash through them to freedom.

Lena folded her arms. “And where else can we talk about it, considering you’re so…. _ busy _ ?” Her heart stung, so she didn’t mind injecting some serious venom into her tone. 

Kara winced. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair of me.” 

“No, this whole thing isn’t fair of you.” Lena spat, finally giving voice to the rising tide within her chest. To her horror, her voice was tight, betraying the quivering emotions in her throat. “I offered to help you, and you made  _ me _ promise that it wouldn’t change our friendship, and now here you are, acting distant and avoiding me. That isn’t fair, Kara.”

Kara opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something. Then she closed it. Then she opened it again, helplessly, and let it hang open, as if she didn’t know quite what to say or do. She finally met Lena’s eyes, and her gaze was anguished. 

“You’re right.” Kara finally croaked out. “You’re absolutely right.”

There was a jerky, shuffling motion and then Kara was grabbing her fingers across the desk, and gripping them, hard. Almost hard enough to really hurt. Lena looked down, brain refusing to process this new information, and Kara’s fingers squeezed lightly, her thumb sliding out over the thin skin of Lena’s wrist, swiping over the blue veins pulsing there. 

“You deserve better than me avoiding you. I’m sorry, Lena.” Kara’s voice was low, almost a murmur. The helpless omega instinct in Lena was fluttering to catch every word. “I’ve been selfish and... _ dumb _ , really. I assumed you wouldn’t—well, it doesn’t matter what I assumed. Just—would you come over later? We can talk more then. I promise.”

Now it was Lena’s turn to open and close her mouth.  _ Come over later... _ images flashed through her mind, coupled with wild, racing feelings. Kara was very close, and her scent was filling Lena’s senses for the first time since the rut. Her omega was practically panting, inside her chest, and her head swam with a rush of desires. 

Kara seemed to sense the inner turmoil, and dropped her fingers. Lena had to bite her cheek ragged to avoid whining at the loss.

“I...yes, Kara, I’ll come. What time?”

Kara’s face lit up in a smile. “Um. Sevenish okay with you?”

And that was how she ended up standing outside Kara’s apartment door at exactly five minutes to 7:00, holding a bottle of far-too-expensive wine in one sweaty, nervous fist. 

She had no idea what she was doing, really, or why she’d worn her favorite black silk lingerie set under her dress. She’d barely been aware of anything—thinking of what Kara might say, or what Kara might  _ do _ , had left her in a kind of fog. But then the blonde alpha was yanking the door open with a wide-as-the-prairie smile and all of her thoughts melted away as she nearly slithered to the floor in reaction.  _ Calm down. Jesus, I’m a mess.  _

“Lena!” Kara’s luminous blue eyes were so much more heartwarming without the tinge of alpha black darkening her irises, but still far too arousing. “You’re early! You look…. _ great _ .”

It was absolutely unfair the way a simple compliment from the alpha could send her skin tingling. Lena managed what she hoped was a friendly brow raise. “I’m in casual attire, Danvers. I hope you don’t mean for us to go out.”

“No, no.” Kara’s arm beckoned her inside, and she followed, willingly. “Nah, I just figured a pizza and movie date? You know? Like we used to?”

Lena felt her shoulders relax in gratitude at the nervous bobbing of the alpha’s head. “Sounds great. Did you call Giorgio’s?”

Kara curled her lip in faux-disgust. “And listen to you complain about their canned artichoke hearts again? No way. I called Iannitell’s, and I ordered the Pig Pen for me, and the Garden of Eden for you.”

“You know me so well.” Lena couldn’t help the slightest of purrs dropping into her voice as she pressed her pea coat into Kara’s chest. “Should I open this?”

“What?” Kara blinked at her, eyes dropping down Lena’s body. “Open what?”

“The  _ wine _ .” Lena felt her lips curl up. She lifted the bottle, by way of explanation, and was immensely rewarded with Kara’s blush. 

“Oh. Yeah. Um. Great idea.”

The tension in the air between them didn’t go down, as the wine was opened and the pizza arrived. Kara sat close enough on the couch for her knuckles to brush against Lena’s nylon-covered thigh every time she reached for the remote or for her pizza plate, and the sizzle of her clumsy touch was almost making Lena pant by the time they’d made it into the second act of  _ The Goonies.  _ She kept up with the friendly banter as best she could, parrying back with dark expertise whenever Kara lobbed a soft flirtation her way, but the alpha never pushed the issue forward. Even when the movie began to wind down and Kara leaned back on the couch with a satisfied belch, putting her feet amidst the mess of boxes and plates on the coffee table, Lena couldn’t quite relax. There was an unspoken electricity between them, crackling quietly in the silence. 

The credits were rolling by the time Lena had finally had enough, for the second time that day. “So.” She cleared her throat as Kara popped the Blu-ray Disc from the tray. “Should we talk now?”

“Oh. Yeah.” The alpha cleared her throat, looking at the movie case in her hands as if it may explode. “Yeah, we should.”

“I mean. That is why you invited me over here, isn’t it?” Lena felt her patience slipping, but kept her tone controlled. “As much as I enjoyed getting to hang out with you again for the first time in weeks, I assumed that you—“

Kara’s eyes rose quickly and guiltily to hers, and the alpha returned to the couch, setting the Blu-ray case down on the messy coffee table. “No, no you’re right. We do need to talk.” She scooted closer, and suddenly the warmth of her was very near indeed. “Lena, I am sorry. It wasn’t fair of me to avoid you.”

Lena felt her eyelids want to flutter, as her inner omega clenched and twisted in her lower belly. Kara hadn’t been that close to her since kissing her on her countertop, and the memory was fresh enough to send daggers of desire down her spine. She squirmed. 

“I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you. I just didn’t know if you…still wanted to be friends.” She let out a sharp laugh. “I thought maybe you couldn’t look at me after what I—-what  _ we _ did.”

“No! No, Lena, that’s not it at all.” Kara looked stricken for the second time that day. “I never meant to make you feel so alone. I just...needed to think about some things. It’s….a tricky situation. You know?”

Of course, she knew. Lena nodded back. “But you could have talked to me, Kara. A call, a text.  _ Something _ .”

Kara nodded, inching still closer. She took Lena’s hands in her own, and the heat of her fingers was oddly comforting. Lena felt herself weaken. “I should have. I know I should. I’m sorry, Lena. It’s on me, it really is. You didn’t do anything wrong. You were  _ wonderful.”  _

Her hands squeezed with emphasis and Lena felt herself release a soft breath, unthinking. The alpha’s presence was unnervingly arousing, and it was doing something to her insides that was completely beyond her control. She felt too hot, too trapped by her clothing, and was struck by a sudden, mad urge to tear them off. She wet her lips, staring at Kara like she was a lifeline, without fully realizing what she was doing. 

The alpha opened her mouth as if to say something else, looking impassioned, but her jaw snapped shut and she took a deep inhale. A confused expression flitted over her features, and then her eyes glazed over in primitive contentment, leaning into Lena’s space to take an intrusive, deep sniff of her scent, close to Lena’s jaw. 

Anyone else would have received a sharp smack for that, but the Luthor omega only closed her eyes and refused to allow the whimper loose from between her lips. The intimate gesture was sending shivers down her thighs, and lightning bolts danced over her skin close to her neck, where the alpha’s warm, damp breath drew goose pimples. Lena nearly moaned, and a sudden realization at that desire had her reeling.  _ My heat. No. Can’t be. I’m a week off, or more. But...it feels…. _

Just as Lena was struggling to come to terms, Kara was drawing the same conclusions. She drew back, taking a calming breath, and when she opened her eyes, the fading remnant of black tingeing her irises was confirmation enough. “Lena….I don’t want to be rude but—“

“I can’t be in heat.” The omega was hardly aware she was speaking, staring hard into Kara’s eyes as her mouth went dry. All the moisture in her body appeared to be rushing southward. “I’m not….It’s too early.”

Kara raised her fingers, tentatively, and stroked them along the hot flesh of Lena’s cheek. They both sucked in a breath at the sizzle of contact. “Are you sure? Because—“

“Well, I  _ was _ .” Lena felt her fingers clenching involuntarily on the hem of her skirt, wanting to raise it above her knees. She kept them locked, tightly together, but control was quickly slipping from her tightly-wound grasp. She cleared her throat. “It seems otherwise, however.”

Kara swallowed, and Lena’s eyes followed the bobbing of her throat. “Is it...because of me?”

Her eyes wanted to close at that. She let them. “It appears so, yes.”

“Did my rut maybe—?”

“Kara.” Lena felt her resolve cracking as a wave of cramps nearly knocked the wind out of her. She found the alpha’s fingers with her own and gave a gentle squeeze. “I think, if you’re willing, now would be a good time for you to return that favor.”

“Return the— _ oh.”  _ Lena knew Kara’s eyes must be as big as saucers, but she didn’t dare look. She couldn’t face any possible rejection right now, so she just dared to  _ hope _ . 

And her hope, it seemed, was about to be rewarded. 

“Oh.  _ Oh _ . Oh.” Kara sounded like she was having a quiet stroke. Lena popped one eye open, just in time to catch her frantic nodding, head jerking as if on a string. “Yes. Um.  _ Yes _ . I can help you. I can definitely—“

“Kara.” Lena cut her off. “Can you kiss me, please?”

The kissing was much better than the talking. 

And much less awkward than their first go at it. Kara’s tongue stroked into her mouth, and she moaned loudly when Lena sucked on it, hands gripping into Lena’s waist like she wanted to shake her. The strength of it made the omega’s pulse jump and she climbed into Kara’s lap, still sucking at her tongue, taking breaks only to nip at the alpha’s irresistibly-protruding lower lip with her teeth.

She only stopped kissing long enough to help the alpha’s fingers sweep up her thighs, finding her wet and urgent against the expensive black silk. Kara let out a guttural growl into her mouth that had her arching, pushing against the alpha’s hand. “Lena,” Kara panted, sounding lost. “Lena. Lena.”

“Please.” That seemed to be the only word left to her, so she repeated it, holding Kara’s face between her hands as she ground her hips down against the pressure building in her lower body. “Please, please,  _ please— _ “

“We should—I need to—-“ Kara broke away, looking wild. “ _ Condoms _ .”

The alpha made as if to get up, and although Lena’s logical mind knew that Kara could be there and back to the corner store faster than she could blink, her body still cried out in instinctive alarm as the alpha shifted away from her.  _ No. Stay.  _ She pressed in closer, dragging Kara’s hands under the sodden, ruined silk of her panties and pulling them down with her fingers twined over Kara’s broad knuckles. “No, no stay here.”

“Lena—“ Kara whimpered, almost helplessly, as her fingers collected the dripping slick, tracing slow lines through Lena’s labia. “Need—protection. S’risky.”

Some primitive, troubling part of Lena’s brain did not like that sentence. She  _ wanted _ her alpha’s seed inside, even as logical, scientific Lena knew this was just a byproduct of the hormone storm currently swirling around them like ball lighting. Logical brain wasn’t winning out, however, as she had to take deep gasping breaths just to stay ahead of the desire to open Kara’s fly right there.

“Can you—“ Lena had to close her eyes to focus. She grit her teeth, still rocking her hips forward unconsciously. “Can you just grab me one of those stupid DEO morning- after pills tomorrow?” 

She had to bite her cheek bloody against the impulse to whine piteously in sheer need, but she was sure some of it came through anyway. As if on cue, Kara’s eyes darkened up and she slid a finger inside, growling as feverish heat met her first stroke.

“Yeah. I can do that.” Kara’s voice was a low rasp as her finger was joined by a second. Lena didn’t hear her anymore, anyway. She was too busy moaning.

It was fast and hard after that, and time quickly blurred away as they stumbled and kissed their way into Kara’s messy, bohemian little bedroom.

Dirty. Urgent. Rough and nasty, in such a sweet, sweet way, with Kara shoving her face into the pillows and telling her to shut up like a good girl and  _ take _ it, while her fingers pressed so close to her womb that her cervix felt bruised. Kara spanking her, seeming to take frenzied pride in how pink and red her rear end could get in just a few short blows. Kara’s tongue slipping around the tight ring of her ass, while the alpha moaned between her cheeks, with Lena too far gone to be embarrassed at how wet she was getting. 

It was all so much. 

Lena was sobbing with relief into the pile of throw pillows on Kara’s bed, twisting handfuls of sheets into pretzels as the alpha pushed back inside of her. The first thrust was a balm to every screaming, howling itch of her senses, but the second took her breath away. Accordingly, the alpha pulled her hair back and fitted her hand under Lena’s jaw, holding her throat with such threatening softness that the omega could only scream her gratitude out with each building, grinding thrust until her throat was raw. 

But still, unthinkably, the alpha did not let her come. 

Kara was fully capable of it, that was for certain. She dropped a hand, and was adeptly manipulating Lena’s clit with her fingers, circling in tight and then loose arches, building the pressure as the omega howled and jibbered like a dying beast below her, writhing on the bed. Despite the urgency of Lena’s heat and the greedy roughness that it brought out in both of them, Kara seemed in no hurry to finally allow her the relief of orgasm. 

Or her knot for that matter. The bulge at the base of her cock was forming, swift and firm, but the alpha only teased her entrance with it, never allowing the rocking motion to truly stretch her inner lips. Lena was gasping and raging internally with desire for it, but another, deeper part of her was excited by the relentless pounding, and the thick, wet slapping sounds as Kara used her pussy as nothing more than a sheath for her cock. She keened and whined, arching and begging wordlessly, but some twisted, instinctive part of her hoped the alpha would fill her and fill her over and over again, never letting her come until Kara was satisfied. She wanted to be nothing but a toy for the alpha’s pleasure. 

Only with Kara could her inner omega sing with such unreserved desire like this. Only  _ for _ Kara. The alpha commanded every inch of her, piloting her body as if she’d never let up. Lena could do nothing more than cling to the bedsheets and cry out for mercy, even as her shivering, shuddering inner self whimpered for none.

Finally, however, Kara relented. Her fingers on the omega’s swollen, begging clit began to speed up, increasing pressure in their frenzy. Lena released a hitching, warbling cry in gratitude, and Kara leaned over her spine, bathing the sweat-streaked skin there in her hot breath. 

“You wanna come for me, huh, Lena?” Kara was panting so hard Lena didn’t know if she knew what she was saying, or if was just a filthy stream of consciousness. “I want you to come, pretty girl.  _ Fuck _ , I want you to come  _ so _ hard. But first you have to take my knot.”

Lena nearly screamed at that. She tore her mouth away from biting into one of Kara’s many ridiculous pillows. Her voice was hoarse and needy. “ _ Yes _ , please Kara. _ Jesus _ , please,  _ please— _ “

“You look so  _ good _ when you come for me, Lena.” Kara told her, dark and low, as her fingers nearly flew on the omega’s clit and her hips rocked the bulge of her knot closer. The stretch was blessedly sharp. “So beautiful all the time, but especially like this….taking me... _ yes _ …”

Lena dug her nails into the bed, swearing as the stretch neared the midway point. “ _ Fuck _ , Kara. So much—it’s  _ so _ much—I— _ oh god!” _

With one final, aching push, Kara sheathed herself fully inside, and Lena’s climax swept up and knocked her to the bed without a single second to stop it. She screamed, and maybe it was Kara’s name, she didn’t know. All she knew was wave after wave of ecstatic, sharp pleasure, knocking her back each time she tried to take a breath and crest the peak. It wouldn’t stop. She could barely think beyond the heat of it. All she felt was bliss, warm as butter, melting from her full, stretched center outwards to the tips of her toes and her fingers.

Somewhere in the midst of that hurricane, Kara grunted into a bite hold on her spine, and her cock pulsed, twitching hard within the tight embrace of Lena’s cunt. Thick fluid spilled into her clenching, pulsating cervix, and filled her depths rapidly, until the alpha’s knot was the only assurance keeping back the flood.

The night was long, after that. And softer. Beautifully, painfully soft. 

And if, in the morning after, Lena woke alone, again, and sore, again, at least this time, however, along with the baggie and the pill, there was a spray of flowers, hastily stuffed into one of her square, elegant vases. Lena suspected vaguely that they had been collected from the nearby roof gardens, but she didn’t particularly mind. Heather, baby’s breath, roses. 

And donuts. 

And that was better, if she could not have the alpha herself. Better, she told herself, as she bit into a powdered donut to soothe the ache inside of her, the sweetness painful on her teeth.  _ Better this way.  _

No matter what her traitor heart told her. 

                                                                               ***


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late-in-the-Monday upload on this one, folks, I know you were waiting! I watched too much Game of Thrones yesterday and took my sweet time writing the first chapter of the sequel for the fans on my site, so this upload got delayed. But it’s here! And hey! Get ready for some fluff! 
> 
> But they’re still idiots. Just. So dumb. Both of them.

They were _definitely_ _still_ not talking about it, but that didn’t exactly mean it had _stopped_ , either. 

Lena was actually surprised when Kara showed up  _ again _ , three weeks later, smelling musky and heavy and leaning on the door to the balcony, wearing blackened eyes and a dazed smile.

They’d resumed their friendship’s normal terms after her heat was over—movie nights, yoga classes, burger runs. She’d assumed things would be back to de facto platonic between them. But that didn’t stop Kara from dropping out of the sky onto her deck that night, stinking deliciously of rut and haltingly asking if Lena might want to ‘help out’ again.

She did, of course.

And so a strange juxtaposition started. During the off-weeks when neither was cycling, they played at being friends again, and not a word was spoken of it, outside of friendly banter and a few innuendos, laced heavily with suggestion, and even those were few and far between. It was mostly the usual—discussions on Alex and her love life took the cake, most days, while others were devoted to Lena’s struggles with the press and the hard time Kara was having with her latest threat to civilian life.

Once the cycle started, however, all of that vanished as if it had never been. Gone was kind, honest-Abe Kara with her bright blue eyes and delighted squeals over puppies on Instagram. In her place was a dark-eyed, unreadable alpha who pressed Lena into an alley wall and kissed her too hard to breathe through, while Lena scrabbled for purchase against rough brick and concrete, panties yanked to one side for easy access.

Lena honestly didn’t know which version she preferred, at times.

Her nights, prior to this arrangement, had mainly been reserved for special projects. Sideline work in her lab that kept her up until nearly dawn, in her private lab, with her reserve of National City’s best and brightest. Now, all of that had crashed to a halt. Her assistants were still gamely pursuing tasks, but Lena was far too preoccupied to join them most nights, as she had before the rampant surge of Kryptonian hormones had her going into heat like clockwork right on the tail end of Kara’s rut, every month. If she had time enough to  _ think  _ in between the alpha’s cycle and her own, perhaps she would be able to work out some kind of pheromone reducer or suppressant that could get them both back on track.

But she didn’t, and so, she wasn’t.

Instead, she was spending a good five days out of every month, on her knees, or pressed into various surfaces while hormones dizzied her brain into a puddle of oatmeal. Her heats had never been this intense, before. The first time she’d cycled with Kara synced to her, she’d nearly crawled out of her skin just to avoid jumping the alpha on the couch, and it was no different now, months later. Each time the rush of it came upon her, she was helpless in its onslaught. Her lovestruck and twitterpated hormones wanted no other alpha but her instinctive Choice, and they would not stop clamoring, taking up her brain with intrusive, deeply sexual thoughts until she could find a time to slip away and be with the alpha again.

It was all becoming a serious impact on her workload. HR Stephanie had sent a kindly-worded-but-concerned letter about the frequency of her heats becoming increased lately, but Lena never answered it. She sent Jess to every pharmacy in National City, instead, looking for the highest strength inhibitors and suppressants she could find, until her purse was a veritable apothecary of pill bottles.

Nothing worked, of course. Nothing calmed the raging, screaming Need inside of her. No pills, no injections or drops of herbal tincture. In the name of good science, she tried everything from calming whale noises to CBD ointments and back to industrial-strength pharmaceuticals with no respite.  _ Nothing worked _ .

Nothing, except for Kara’s warm weight, and the exhaling, triumphant groan of the Kryptonian alpha as she released inside of her.  _ That _ was, in it of itself, uniquely frustrating, as it seemed her self-made orgasms were now piteous, barely cognizant things—unless Kara was the one making her come. Or—as one humiliatingly successful session proved—watching it. No, it seemed Lena was now agonizingly impotent in her solo attempts at orgasm, despite the finest array of vibrators and alpha-scented dildos that money could buy. But the barest touch of Kara’s breath on her thigh could send her into veritable hysterics. It simply wasn’t fair.

That was why she was perhaps taking more sadistic joy than she should, at this exact moment, on her knees in front of the alpha as she worked her impressive length slowly in and out of her throat, pausing for long, showy licks along the shaft on every other stroke. As an omega she had so few moments of control—this one she was going to enjoy thoroughly.

Kara was red-faced, whimpering, with her hands clutched in frustration at her sides. The deal was that she couldn’t force Lena to make her come—that could be dangerous, after all—but Lena had to admire the way Kara was showing enough restraint not to at least break the couch again.

A ferocious part of her wanted to break that restraint in half like a twig and watch the alpha lose all inhibition. So she bobbed, slowly, making eye contact with the alpha’s frantic, pleading blue-black gaze, and contrived to leave wet, sucking kisses along the purpled glans, drawing out spurts of pre-cum with each pass. The flavor was salt-bitter and musky, and it drove a lash over the roiling mass of hormones within her, fueling her desire.

“Lena,” Kara rasped, finally, and the omega’s lips curled up, even as she dilligently kept up the rhythmic sucking. “Rao, God, fuck, I can’t— _ please!” _

That was the magic word. It was too bad Lena didn’t feel quite inclined to hear it, at this moment. She rolled her eyes up innocently at Kara’s blazing face, panting down at her in near-agony, and let her tongue wetly glide down the shaft until she could pepper kisses along the straining knot at its base. Kara let out a hoarse grunt of denial and jerked her hips, trying to find the warm relief of her mouth again. Lena avoided her, deftly, and released her sucking on the ridge of the alpha’s knot with a wet smack. She let her fingers pump lazily along Kara’s throbbing, twitching shaft, and looked up at the alpha with a  _ tsk _ ing noise. 

“Really? So soon?”

“Yes,  _ really!  _ For pete’s sake, Lena, you know what your mouth does to me.” Kara growled, low and deep in her chest, and Lena couldn’t help the reciprocal shudder of appreciation. She didn’t put the cock back in her mouth, however. 

“What does it do to you?”

Kara looked helplessly at the ceiling, jerking in place as Lena’s fingers slowly stroked up and down. She closed her eyes, seemingly unable to form words that weren’t hoarse groans for a moment, until Lena’s hand stopped moving, ominously, and she jerked back to awareness, eyes open once more. 

“Hffffuck, you m-make me come so quickly. No one else has ever….Lena,  _ please _ , please, for the love of  _ Rao _ , just—“ 

That was a much more eloquent plea, and this time she felt it was sufficient enough to dispense reward. Her lips sealed around the leaking, swollen head once more and her fist pumped the pressure surging along the shaft into her mouth, hollowing her cheeks as she massaged the knot with her free hand, milking it. 

Kara threw her head back again and  _ howled _ , hips spasming with staccato bursts. Her cock twitched, shuddered and jerked, and a thick rush greeted her tongue. Lena reflexively swallowed, and her instincts kept her on top of the flood, even as Kara thrust frantically a few more times into her throat. The alpha’s fingers twined in Lena’s hair, holding her in place as her cock emptied into the omega’s swallowing mouth—which was technically against the rules, but Lena allowed it. 

Her inner omega was purring by the end of it, and her thighs were drenched, coated in her own excessive slick. She rubbed them together, as she continued milking the alpha’s cock for every last drop. Her omega demanded that she keep sucking until the thick length went soft between her lips and Kara pulled herself free, stroking Lena’s cheek to clean up a stray trickle. She’d managed to contain most of it, though, and that gave her an inward shudder of pride, as Kara looked down at her with that familiar, unreadable expression. 

Lena had gotten used to seeing that strange look a lot over the past few weeks. Kara kept doing it, at quiet, odd moments. It was a sort of quirk in her brows—not quite a furrow—and a twist of her lips in a half-smile that was….contemplative, to put a word on it. Lena didn’t know what it meant. 

She’d seen Kara look at her like that when she woke once from a brief doze to find the alpha tracing a light pattern up her spine with her fingertips barely grazing her skin. Her eyes were shiny and lustrous, but when Lena asked her if she was okay, she only shook her head and kissed her so hard that she pressed a furrow into the memory foam mattress. Then again, when Lena offered her Postmates to order in some pizza after a particularly long session. And another time, when they were both coming down from a shared, messy high, and Kara had paused to lift some hair from Lena’s face with an all-too-gentle hand, before looking down and away. 

Now, as she sat back on her heels, and licked her lips clean, Lena felt mildly exasperated. She didn’t like the way her belly clenched and wriggled at Kara’s expression.  _ Stop that. Stop just  _ looking  _ at me _ .  _ Tell me what’s going on with you. Tell me why you keep wanting to do this.  _

“What?” She asked, tersely, sharper than she intended. To temper it, she tried lifting her chin. “Something on my face?”

Kara shook her head, as if to dispel a fog. “Nah, you’re good. Thank you, though.”

“Don’t mention it.” The irritation was still there, though—Lena wanted to rub at the wound. “Why do you look at me like that?”

“Like what?” In an instant, Kara’s eyes were shifting away from hers, guiltily. 

“Kara…” Lena sighed, and got to her feet, fluffing her hair as she pulled her robe from the edge of the bed. They were in her apartment, this time, and moonlight spilled in from the windows across the expanse of white that was her bed, covering Kara in an eerie halo. “Don’t be evasive, you’re not very good at it. You  _ know _ .”

She belted her robe, waiting, as the alpha sighed and rolled over, searching for her boxers. “I thought we weren’t talking about….this. I thought you said—“

“—That spontaneity was sometimes the better part of valor.” Lena couldn’t help but snap in reply. “I know what I said, Kara. For one, I was in  _ heat _ , so I hardly think it can be counted, and for another, I don’t generally disagree. But when you look at me like that….” She trailed off. 

This was dangerous territory and they both knew it. Lena could feel her heart thudding wildly in her chest and her eardrums, but she couldn’t seem to make herself back down.  _ Tell me.  _ She thought, mildly crazed.  _ Just fucking tell me so I can take the blow. I know it’s coming. _

“Like what?” Kara had gone very quiet, and her back was turned, naked and lean, as she clenched her boxers in one seemingly-trembling hand. 

_ Fuck it. Rip the bandaid. Burn it all down.  _ “What do you want out of this, Kara?” Lena burst, finally, feeling her blood roar as too many emotions bubbled inside of her to count. “Where’s this going? Are you going to just quietly stop fucking me once you get a boyfriend again, or what?”

Lena couldn’t see Kara’s eyes, but her back stiffened as if she’d taken a blow. “I thought….you said this was a friends-with-benefits situation.” She answered, with some trepidation. 

Lena felt her shoulders slump. There it was. The thing she dreaded and feared and  _ needed _ to know, all in one awful, tangled ball.  _ I’m just a fuck buddy to her. I offered, she accepted. That’s it. Anything else….was all in my head, apparently.  _

But she was still a Luthor. She drew herself together with a steadying breath, preparing. She could go out in style. “Yes, I said that.” 

“Is that…” Kara turned to her now, and Lena could feel her resolve shaking and quaking at the strange, quivering look in the alpha’s face.  _ No, stop that, turn back around— _ “Is that what  _ you _ want, Lena?” 

Even more dangerous territory. Lena felt her mouth shut with a firm snap and she recoiled.  _ Nope. No, no. Do not answer that. Incrimination.   _ “I—I—“  _ Stop talking.  _ But it was too late. _ “ _ I don’t know what I want.” She finished, all-too-honestly. 

Kara was naked, but yet Lena was the one who felt her skin prickle as the alpha stared back at her, wearing that same damnable expression. She pulled her arms tightly around her shoulders, unaware that she was practicing a self-soothing game she’d played from childhood—when Lillian refused to allow the nannies to comfort her. Something about the way the alpha was just  _ staring  _ made Lena feel small, and she didn’t like it. 

“You don’t know what you want?” Kara’s questioning tone was quiet. Lena almost didn’t catch it. 

“No.”  She closed her eyes. The alpha’s gaze was painfully inquisitive. 

“What about what I want?”

_ That _ question made her eyes pop open. Kara had scooted closer, and her lingering rut pheromones were still blackening the edges of her irises, but her clear blue eyes looked strangely focused. 

“And that is…?” Lena prompted. 

“I like this.” Kara took her hands. Her fingers were warm. “I like being with you….this way. Can’t we keep going?”

_ Keep going.  _ The bright blue earnestness in those eyes was a painful twist in her side. So much in her wanted to. Just keep ignoring her own feelings, stuff them down, and enjoy the mind-blowing sex, while pretending that it didn’t hurt like hell to have Kara not stay the night. No. She couldn’t. 

She shook her head, and was mortified to find that tears were filling her eyes. She wiped them, hastily, and hated the way Kara’s brows knitted to see it. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Kara looked stricken, and her hands tightened, holding even as Lena tried to pull away. The grip wasn’t painful, but it was strong enough to remind her who she was dealing with. “Did I do something? Did I hurt you?”

“No, Kara.” She shook her head, willing herself to stop the tears.  _ God damn you, can’t you just be easy about this.  _ “No, you didn’t do anything. You’ve been perfect. That’s….that’s kind of the problem, actually.” She barked out a bitter laugh to keep from choking on a sob. 

“Why?” Kara stepped closer, and the heat still clinging to her skin was a siren’s call. Lena’s fingers itched to pull her in for a kiss. “Lena, I don’t understand. Please, just tell me what you want.”

_ I want you. I love you.  _ Some of it must have shown in the anguish on her face, because Kara moved even closer, and now they were almost sharing breath. “Lena—“

“Kara, don’t—“

“I don’t want to stop.” Kara’s voice was pleading, but there was a husky, deeper layer as she dropped a searing, wet kiss to Lena’s quivering collarbone. “I know you don’t want to stop, either. Lena,  _ please _ .”

“Kara.” She sighed, and felt her skin sing in response to the alpha’s suckling lips, leaving a trail of kisses along her jawline. “Kara.”

“Let me make you feel good.” The voice was in her ear now, rasping with primal command. Lena shuddered. “Please, I  _ want _ to. I-I love to make you feel good, Lena.”

_ Love.  _ Just the mention of it made Lena shiver and quake, melting into Kara’s arms as the alpha murmured praise and rained kisses along her neck. It wasn’t what she needed, but it was  _ close enough  _ that that one single word was enough to batter down all of her defenses. “Okay,” she whispered, caught up, as Kara’s fingers made short work of the robe, skillfully maneuvering them back towards the bed. “Okay, okay….”

“Thank you.” Kara told her, absurdly, guiding her head back onto the pillows with strange tenderness. Her eyes were shining, wet, and Lena would have thought more about that, she really would have—but then Kara’s mouth descended to her nipples and her head fell back.

She knew she was letting stupidly-good sex get the better of her. She knew she shouldn’t be opening her legs as Kara sucked hot kisses around her navel, dipping her tongue inside. She should be getting up, getting Kara out, and getting over it. Maybe with a few bottles of wine, and some empty-hearted crying until her eyes fell out, sure, but  _ over it.  _ So she could move on from...whatever kind of beautiful hell this was, and re-focus back on the company that was to be her legacy. But somehow, despite all of Lena’s Luthor reserve of steel, she was moaning brokenly, face turned half into a pillow, hips jerking for more, as Kara’s hot breath bathed the neatly-trimmed triangle of her pubic hair. 

When the alpha’s tongue slipped inside her, she was crying anyway, so it was all a moot point. Tears slipped from her cheeks and she barely noticed, too caught up in riding the two fingers that entered her as Kara left her entrance to lap in intoxicatingly-tight circles around her clit. The wetness on her face was like a warm cathartic rain, and she sighed, letting her chest fully relax, even as her hips lifted, seeking more pressure from Kara’s willing mouth. 

Kara fucked her to two slow, decadent orgasms that way, building her release in tidal waves that made her sigh, rather than scream, but it was good. So good, that when the alpha’s cock nudged questioningly at her thigh, she barely moved, aside from tilting her hips in welcome. Kara re-entered her then, and braced herself on hands on either side of Lena’s head. The eye contact never wavered as she drove back inside, lip quivering from the pleasure as she grunted to feel how wet the omega was. Lena bit at the wrist beside her face and shuddered, mouthing helplessly at Kara’s flesh.

“I just want you to be happy, Lena.” Kara told her, thrusting with her whole lower body. She tilted her forehead down, meeting Lena’s sweaty brow, and the omega gasped at the way the new position forced such fullness. “You mean so much to me.”

“Kara, I—“ Lena cut herself off with a whimper, and latched onto Kara’s lip instead. 

“Just fuck me.” She breathed, finally, when she felt more in control, and the alpha bore a tiger-stripe pattern of bruises along her jaw that were rapidly fading as she watched. Something about the impermanence of it made her sting, and she closed her eyes against the feeling. “Just fuck me, please.”

Kara, never one to refuse an order, did. 

After, when they were tangled together in a sweaty, panting pile, with Kara still weakly emptying inside of her, she pulled her fingers through Kara’s wet hair and tugged her close. The alpha nosed into her neck and sighed, heavily, relaxing as her cock twitched in the still-clenching heat of Lena’s cunt. The knot rocked heavy and solid just inside her entrance, sealing off the flood of Kara’s release. 

“Stay.” She told the alpha, running limp fingers through her hair. She hoped like hell there wasn’t too much pleading in her voice, but there probably was anyway. “Stay with me. Don’t go.”

Kara nodded into her neck. “I won’t.” She promised. 

                                                                                  ***

And that meant that when Lena awoke, sore and blinking in the light of day, there was Kara, snoring with her butt up in the air and a fistful of blanket in one hand.

It was certainly somewhat unexpected.  She half-expected Kara to be gone when she woke up, but that was fine—the alpha had held up her end of the deal. Clearly, Kara had decided to go above and beyond. As usual. The thought made smile, and she refrained from dropping a smack on that upraised perfect ass as she made her way gingerly to the shower. Kara would probably be gone by the time she was out, she imagined.

As the hot water started, however, Lena heard a sleepy, muffled groan through the wall, and, in a moment, Kara padded nude into the bathroom, sniffing and scratching herself, and looking like anything but someone who wanted to leave quickly. She yawned, stretching while Lena watched in silent appreciation, and nodded at her in the shower, somewhat blearily. “Morning.”

“Good morning, Kara.” Lena turned, quickly, as the alpha approached the toilet. “There’s a bathroom in the guest room, you know.” 

“This one’s closer.” Lena felt her cheeks flame and stared resolutely at the tiles as the distinctive sound of urination hitting the porcelain followed Kara’s succinct, sleepy grunt, and the flush. “Ahhh, much better. You have a toothbrush in here I could use?”

“Medicine closet.” Lena didn’t turn as she heard Kara rummaging. She felt a strange mix of mortification and absurd, absolute calm. Of course Kara was in her bathroom. They’d spent the night fucking each other—she shouldn’t feel so much more  _ naked _ now. But  _ Kara _ was  _ in _ her  _ bathroom _ . And it was morning.  _ Morning.  _

Everything felt ridiculously strange as she heard the alpha diligently brush her teeth, gargle and spit. It was as if she was living in a parallel universe—one in which she and Kara were something approximate to a couple. She was almost totally unsurprised when she heard the shower door open and felt the alpha’s warm presence slip in behind her. “Mind if I join?”

“Not at all.” She turned, offering the alpha the soapy washcloth with what she hoped was a sufficiently sexy grin, despite the strange, giddy paralysis of her heart. “You can help me get the difficult-to-reach spots.”

After that, the shower turned into a prolonged affair. Long enough, in fact, for Lena’s exorbitantly expensive—and large—water heater to run out, and for them to need showering all over again, shivering and laughing in the cold, by the end of it. 

Lena was fifteen minutes late to work for the first time in living history and even as Jess repeatedly asked if anything was wrong, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Something had changed. Definitely. But in the strange, confusing process of it, it would take Lena nearly a week to realize they’d both forgotten all about the little blue pill in the baggie. 

                                                                         ***   
  
  



	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t forget you all! I’m sorry for the late update, but it was Easter weekend last weekend, and I was driving back home to Oregon from my sister’s place in San Francisco on Monday. As a result of 10hrs of solid white-knuckle mountain driving, I passed out when I got in and didn’t fully wake up until today, so here is your update, much overdue. 
> 
> Don’t fret over the ending, too! The first chapter of the sequel is already done, and the second is being written for posting today as we speak—and we’re already getting back into the smut train. So stay tuned and keep your thoughts sinful!
> 
> Also, a huge thank you for all your lovely encouragement and kind words. This story is a fun ride, and I thank you all for coming with me. <3

Everything had become very confusing. 

Kara waltzed into her office the next morning carrying a bright smile and an armful of flowers. Lena had looked up and nearly dropped her tablet through the expensive plate glass of her desk. Her heart felt like it was very near to total cataclysmic shock when Kara placed the bouquet gingerly across her desk—scattering lily blossoms and stray leaves everywhere—and stood back to look expectantly at Lena as if she was anticipating something.

She probably wasn’t anticipating Lena nearly choking on an inhaled pollen cloud and wheezing for breath for the next five minutes.

Once she’d drunk most of a glass of water and had been thoroughly back-patted, Kara had departed with one final lingering glance, and Lena was left with a pile of rapidly-wilting plant life and wondering  _ what the hell _ that was all about. She sent Jess out for a vase, and managed to save the flowers, but she felt Kara’s eyes on her through the glass walls the entire time, as she set the cornucopia over in its own place of honor on her coffee table. Every time Lena looked up, though, it was back to middle-school darting glances and secretive looks.

She had no idea what had gotten into Kara, nor why it felt so strongly like the alpha was waiting for a kiss.

Things only got weirder as the week wore on. On Tuesday, Kara slowed in the middle of a whizzing, high-speed chase around National City to wave at Lena in her office. A large sizzling blue bolt exploded onto a building behind her, and she darted away, but not before a bewildered Lena had already raised two fingers in a half-wave. Kara returned to the office about a half hour later—victorious but panting, slightly—and eagerly dropped a new piece of alien weaponry on her desk like a family cat bringing a dead mouse to the doorstop.

It was sweet, albeit very unnerving.

Sweeter still was how Kara now solicitously appeared to walk her to her car, every evening, without fail. Lena hadn’t called for her driver in days, and, subsequently, instead of Tom’s ruddy, slightly-bored expression, she now saw Kara’s smiling blue eyes every time the elevator doors opened on the parking garage. Studiously, carefully, never failing to ignore Lena’s feeble protests that this was entirely unnecessary, Kara would walk her the ten or so feet to the Jag, and then hug her fiercely before taking to the sky….or rather, the exit to the parking garage. Then, during her drive home, she could usually count on seeing a familiar flash of red and blue darting through the clouds above the freeway—almost as if Kara wanted to be sure she was safely home, traffic be damned. 

Just because Lena  _ liked _ it didn’t mean she didn’t find it odd. 

On Wednesday, she’d nearly tripped crossing the bullpen. It wasn’t a huge deal. Her ankle just wobbled and she went sideways with an inelegant  _ oof _ ….but, as it turned out, she didn’t hit the ground. Kara was there, clothes still faintly rustling with the speed, looping an arm under Lena’s knees and placing a cautious hand on her back. Lena blinked up into her eyes and felt the entire world crawl to a stop before Kara gently righted her on her feet once more. Several people had to pretend not to watch.

“Those heels of yours are gorgeous, but they’re not healthy for your ankles.” 

Kara almost sounded like she was  _ fretting _ . Lena felt faintly stunned, both by the speedy catch and by the word  _ gorgeous — _ which had last been uttered by Kara while she was burying her face between Lena’s legs. 

“I’m fine, thank you.” She told Kara, maybe a bit frostier than intended, but the silence was making her distinctly aware of all the eyes on them, the longer Kara lingered with her hands on Lena’s back. 

Kara released her, but her face was reluctant. Lena almost wanted to step to her and assure her she was really  _ fine _ , but the moment passed and Jess was clearing her throat, politely, to ask if she still wanted to talk to the Chinese government before lunch. And that was that. Lena went on with her day, still wondering why Kara had rushed to her without a second thought for who could see. 

Thursday was a day of meetings. Meetings with investors, CatCo finance reviews, L-Corp stock board. Lena had to sit placidly with her hands laced while several of Lex’s Old Boys club blustered on about her decision to cut ties with Kryptonite sales of any kind. She gave them her thinnest, most sparing smile and explained—for the fourth time—that she wasn’t going to be moved on the issue, but that she appreciated their insight anyway. By the time the meeting ended, the Old Boys filed out in a disgruntled line, muttering amongst themselves about ‘female hysterics’ and Lena found she was feeling rather nauseous about the whole affair. 

The feeling didn’t abate, however, as her morning wore on. Her stomach was doing several unpleasant twists and turns every time she tried to concentrate or do more than lift a pen to paper to sign a check. She nearly had to rush to the restroom when Jess appeared in the door to ask what she’d like to order for lunch. 

“Miss Luthor, you don’t look very well.” Jess helped her to sit on the couch, and Lena placed her head between her hands as the world spun for a moment. 

“I don’t feel very well, either.” Her temple was hot and clammy between her palms. “Could you possibly bring me some mineral water? Thanks, Jess.”

But the mineral water didn’t help. No sooner had she shakily screwed the cap back in place than the bottle slipped from her numb fingers and she found herself slapping a hand over her mouth and racing to her private bathroom, which was, thankfully, only feet away. Even so, she barely made it to the toilet before the meager remnants of her hurried breakfast came back up in the porcelain bowl. 

Jess was hovering by the door, clearly unsure what do do. “Do you want me to call Dr. Gupta? I can try to get an afternoon appoint—“

There was another surge. Lena held up a miserable finger and evacuated her stomach contents again, noisily. She hadn’t vomited like this since college. It was an unpleasant reminder of how much she disliked the general experience. And having Jess witness it was really too much. 

To add insult to injury, however, her stomach dropped again as Kara’s brightly anxious face appeared over Jess’s shoulder, adjusting her glasses in a kind of nervous fervor that Lena recognized as her ‘worried’ tic. “Lena? Are you okay?”

“Fine.” She croaked, and attempted to struggle to her feet. The ground seemed to elude her, though, and two sets of hands shot out to catch her, this time. “Oh god, please  _ don’t _ , you two. I’m fine.”

“Lena, you don’t look fine.” Kara argued, and, to her irritation, Jess was nodding along like a sycophant.  _ Since when are you two so chummy?  _ She thought, but her aggravation was misplaced. If only her stomach would stop convulsing _ …  _ “Your pulse is weird and fast and all over the place. I don’t like it.”

If Jess gave any indication that she heard the superhuman ability in that statement, Lena didn’t see it. Instead, she was thumbing quickly through her iPhone, probably looking at Dr. Gupta’s schedule. Still. Discretion was really always the better idea. She shot Kara A Look, intended to convey the words ‘ _ shut up’ _ without her having to say it, but, as usual, it appeared to have gone over the alpha’s head. Kara was just fixing her with that damn worried expression and it was sending Lena’s stomach to fits. 

“I’m fine.” She insisted, again, through gritted teeth. “Kara, please stop. And Jess, if I feel badly this afternoon,  _ I’ll  _ schedule the appointment. Both of you need to calm down. It’s probably just food poisoning.”

“No.” Kara shook her head. “I can smell it. Something’s different about you. Can I just take you to…. _ my _ doctor? Please?”

Another Look, but this time from sheer huffiness. “Dr. Gupta is certainly as competent as any of the doctors in the…...wellness center. She comes highly recommended.”

“I’m sure she does.” Kara’s eyes shot to Jess, and then back to Lena. “But the doctors at the…. _ wellness center _ might be more equipped to handle sudden, strange illnesses, don’t you think?”

_ Oh, Kara. You may as well write ‘I’M TALKING ABOUT ALIENS’ in block print on your forehead.  _ Lena massaged the bridge of her nose, feeling another urge rising in her belly. She managed to quell it with a strong swig of mineral water, but grimaced, hard. 

“Fine. Let’s go to the damn ‘wellness center’ so they can tell me it’s just food poisoning and you can calm the hell down.” She snapped, but Kara immediately beamed at her as if she’d just uttered the sweetest of praises.

To her credit, Jess didn’t ask any further questions about the destination, or why Kara was so insistent about bringing her there, and, in months to come, Lena would realize she must have known about Kara’s second identity practically as long as Lena had. But, just then, it was a singular relief to not have to try and dance any further around the subject of the DEO in front of her. Instead, Lena merely directed her to head home early, after sending a few remaining emails, and Jess waved them to the elevator, looking distinctly relieved. Lena imagined a puking boss was the last thing her much-beleaguered assistant had wanted for her day. 

In the elevator, the closeness of Kara made her want to simply sag forward and into the relief of those strong arms, so instead, she clung to her water bottle, taking small sips. 

“Thank you for coming with me,” Kara had had a hand solicitously at the base of Lena’s spine since walking her out of the office, and she didn’t seem inclined to drop it, even now. Her eyes were so achingly honest in their gratitude that Lena had to look away. It unnerved her. 

“You’re being silly.” She grumbled, but her tone had lost all of its teeth. Kara seemed to recognize this and flashed her a smile with plenty of them. 

“Maybe so, but if you have some kind of alien virus, wouldn’t you rather know now, than later?”

She rolled her eyes. “Kara, I do not have an alien virus. Something just upset my stomach. I don’t care for that broccolini pasta I’ve been ordering, I guess.”

“You love that pasta.” Kara’s brow crinkled. “And I wasn’t lying in your office, earlier. Your pulse is all over the place, and your temperature is going crazy. Maybe it’s nothing, but it would make  _ me _ feel better to get it checked, okay?”

She knew what Kara was doing, of course. Giving her permission to do something for herself, in the name of doing it for others. That didn’t mean that it didn’t work. Lena wished Kara didn’t know her so well. 

Lena sniffed, and conceded, feeling her shoulders drop. “Fine. But if it’s food poisoning, you owe me.”

Kara’s laugh was rich and warm in the confined space of the elevator. “I’m all good with that.” 

The doors  _ dinged _ open to reveal the patio on the rooftop. It was mostly used by smokers, and was deserted at this post-lunch-break hour. For a moment, Lena was confused as to why they weren’t in the parking garage, and then it clicked and she moaned unhappily. “Oh Kara,  _ no _ .”

Kara shifted, looking uncomfortable but set. “I’m sorry, Lena, but the flight from the garage takes too long. This’ll be quicker. Please, trust me.” She opened her arms. 

“I hate flying.” Lena reminded her, futilely, as she stepped into the circle and felt Kara draw her close. Her nausea was increasing, but she was also quietly pleased to have an excuse to drop into her arms. She put her head in Kara’s neck, using her illness as an excuse to close her eyes and breathe in the alpha’s scent. 

“I know.” Kara soothed. “I promise, it’ll be quick.” 

Her muscles bunched, and Lena felt her stomach clench again, sending her into another miserable lurch. She kept her eyes tightly closed, with her face burrowed into Kara’s neck, and that made the experience bearable. Feeling the alpha’s strong pulse beat against her cheek was comforting. 

There was nothing comforting at the DEO, however. Alex greeted them with a half-smile and an alarming array of very large, absurdly strong-looking needles. Lena almost thought she was going to be sick all over them, but Alex, seeming to sense the green rising in her gills, was quick to shake her head. 

“These aren’t for you. They’re for her.” She jabbed her chin at Kara, who was already holding her arm out to be swabbed, making a face. “We have to check and see if she’s run into anything in the last week that could be transmissible to humans. Quicker to test her first—then we can treat you if your symptoms match.” 

Alex didn’t wait to receive praise for smart thinking. Instead, leaving Kara behind with a nervous-looking DEO nurse, she beckoned Lena into an exam room—largely similar to the one in Dr. Gupta’s office, barring the DEO alien anatomy posters on the walls—and made her comfortable on the plastic sheet covering the table. 

Disappointingly, there was also another tray of needles. 

“You said those were for Kara.” Lena protested, feebly, even as she held her arm out for a sterile wipe. 

“I did.” Alex nodded soberly. “But  _ these _ ones are for you. Toughen up, buttercup.”

Lena wanted to retort, but the needle jabbed into her vein and she winced instead.

The volley of needles was, thankfully, quicker than she’d originally thought, but the barrage of tests weren’t over yet. Alex directed her to a bathroom with a plastic sample cup, and waited none-too-patiently outside the door until she’d managed to pee a few drops into it. Her stomach lurched, again, but she managed to quell it with some cold water splashed onto her face and hands. 

When she met her own eyes in the small, utilitarian mirror above the basin, she saw someone who looked wan, and worn-out. The pallor of her face had an unhealthy glow, and her eyes had dark, foreboding circles pressed beneath.  _ God, I look like death. No wonder they’re so concerned. But it’s just silly food poisoning. Has to be.  _ With that as her reasoning, she got her compact out and attempted a fix, and just as the mirror snapped shut back in her purse, she put her worry into a neat little box and packaged it away. 

She had found herself doing that a lot, lately. 

Alex left her to marinate in her own unhappy stew of thoughts while she left to check the results. Twenty long minutes went by. At first, Lena checked her phone, tapped off a few emails to Jess, and read some articles. But as the minutes went by, she found it increasingly harder and harder to keep her worry contained in that mental lockbox. It was taking too long. 

She found herself pacing by the end, looking at the clock on the wall and fervently wondering just where in the hell Alex had went to. Or what Kara was doing. She felt sick, again, and almost lurched for the trashcan before cooling herself down with a few sips from her water bottle. The relief of the water only lasted for a few minutes before she was back up and pacing again, feeling restless and uneasy.

There were voices outside the corridor, raised ones. It sounded like Kara was arguing with someone, maybe Alex. She was just about ready to marshal up her queasy nerves and head out to demand that someone tell her what was going on, when Kara burst into the room, looking harried. 

“Lena, are you okay? Your heart rate sounded fast and scary.”

“I’m okay.” She blinked, surprised that Kara had even been listening for her. “Doesn’t that take a lot of concentration?”

“No, not really. I do it all the time.” Kara admitted, and then did her characteristic blush. “Not  _ all  _ the time, I mean—“

“Calm down, hyper pants.” Alex brushed past her, decidedly no-nonsense. She had a sheet of paper in one hand and a grim look. “I have a private discussion I need to have with Lena. Scoot.”

Kara locked eyes with the omega. “No way. I’m staying.”

Lena nodded, quickly. “It’s okay, Alex, I want her to stay.” The words  _ private discussion  _ had her stomach dropping through the floor. 

Alex shot her sister a frustrated look, but her eyes, once they returned to Lena’s, were concerned. Gentle. She didn’t like that look in Alex’s eyes. “I just want to be sure. Because I have some...sensitive stuff to talk to you about. It may be kind of hard to hear.”

Lena nodded once, harshly, and closed her eyes. A kind of dull haze settled over her, and she felt her shoulders sag.  _ It’s cancer. I know it is. Cancer just like Dad.  _

She could still see the bed, with its blue sheets. The stains. The half-empty applesauce containers. The beeping of the machines. The stink of piss and rot. And still, even as he coughed into his hand and hid the blood, he was smiling, asking her how was school. She wanted to lift him out of the bed, make him shower and dress in his suit and tie again. It was strange to see him so drawn, so frail. Lillian would usher her away after a few minutes, and she hated how relieved she felt but,  _ oh god _ how it stank in that room. In the room where he would eventually die. Where death had been waiting, sitting in that smell, all along.

Kara’s hand curled tightly over her own, and she opened her eyes from gloomy thoughts to blue eyes, bright as the sky. “Hey.” The alpha’s voice was soft, as if she knew exactly what Lena was thinking. “It’s gonna be okay. Whatever it is….Alex and I are here to help.”

“Yes.” Alex cleared her throat. “There are options for you. We can talk about them.”

“Options?” Lena swiveled her head.  _ Treatments? What does she mean? I don’t really think cancer has  _ options _.  _

Alex looked pained. “Yeah. So, this is the sensitive stuff part.” She shot Kara another look, and gritted her teeth. “Which is  _ why _ we really should be alone, right now.”

Kara glared back, holding onto Lena’s hand tightly. “Lena wants me here.” 

Alex rolled her eyes, clearly exasperated, and raised a brow at Lena. “Are you sure?” She asked, again. 

Lena nodded, and gripped Kara’s fingers, giving them as tight a squeeze as she could manage. “Yes. Please, just tell me, Alex.”

Alex let out a little cough. “Well….um….there’s no easy way to say this.” 

“Just say it.” Lena was beginning to get irritated. “Tell me I have cancer. Tell me I shouldn’t have messed with all those radiation patents. I know, okay? I  _ know _ it.”

She didn’t catch Kara’s concerned eyes dropping onto her, but she felt them. Alex looked distinctly alarmed and waved the sheet of paper like a white flag until she stopped talking. 

“Lena, Lena, calm down. You don’t have cancer! You…..well, it looks like…” Alex coughed again, quickly. “ _ Itlookslikeyou’repregnant _ .”

All the breath went out of Lena in one instant, and apparently Kara, too, because the alpha’s voice was a squeak. “What?”

“It looks like you’re pregnant.” Alex said, slowly, and suddenly, Lena very much needed to sit down. She found the Naugahyde exam table behind her with numb fingers and plonked down onto it, heavily. 

“Oh.”

Kara didn’t move or make a single sound. She stood stock still, staring at Alex as if the room was going to disappear. 

“It’s not a normal pregnancy, though.” Alex continued, clearly trying to force through the thick tension in the air. “It’s progressing fast.  _ Really _ fast. Your tests show you’re about a week, maybe two, into development, but the embryo is the size of a four week-old. And it’s very odd, because we found alien DNA in your bloodstream, where it absolutely does not belong, so I’m gonna have to ask you a  _ very _ potentially upsetting question—“

“It’s mine.” Kara interrupted, looking greenish. “Alex, it’s mine.”

Alex was nonplussed, blinking. “Your what?” 

Neither Lena nor Kara moved. It only took Alex a moment to land on it. Her eyes rounded. 

“Oh. Oh god.” She moved her finger back and forth between Kara and Lena, and if it wasn’t such a dire situation, it would have been comical how she gaped. “You two?  _ Together _ ? Since when?”

“Do you remember when the lab ran out of suppressants?” Kara nodded as Alex’s eyes widened impossibly further. “Yeah. About since then.”

“And we’re not together.”  Lena hastened to add, hoping to spare Kara any awkwardness. 

Inexplicably, however, Kara turned to her with hurt, wide eyes. “We’re not?”

_ What. Is. Happening.  _

Lena tried to remain calm, even as Alex appeared to have a small conniption fit in the background. The look in Kara’s eyes made her entire world compass came crashing to a dead stop, and she found herself fumbling for words. 

“Well,  _ yes _ , Kara, you said you wanted us to stay friends with benefits, and I—“

“No, I said I wanted to be with you. I  _ told _ you, I love being with you.” Kara looked about as confused as Lena felt, and the omega’s heart thudded in her chest. She wondered how much of it Kara could hear. 

“That’s not—“ Lena swallowed, hard. “What does that mean to you,  _ exactly _ ?”

“Okay, hold on.” Alex snapped her fingers in between the two of them, several times. “I’m sorry. Back up. You two can discuss semantics of your romantic life later.  _ Priorities _ .” 

When Lena finally tore her eyes away from Kara’s wounded gaze, Alex sighed. “Look, this is your business. You’re grown adult women. But I  _ do _ care about one thing.” She rounded on her sister, arms crossed. “Explain to me why you weren’t using protection. Mom raised you better than that.” 

“I  _ was _ using protection!” Kara flung her arms out, clearly aggravated. “You gave me that pill, and I’ve been giving it to Lena every time we—“

“Wait.” Alex pinched the brow of her nose, and Lena’s stomach did an unpleasant somersault. “Wait, wait,  _ wait _ .  _ What _ pill?”

“Large. Blue. DEO imprint on one side. Unpleasant taste.” Lena supplied. There was a clenching, roiling knot in her lower body. “Please tell me it’s a morning-after contraceptive.”

“That’s what she  _ said _ it was!” Kara looked like she was on the verge of a mild seizure. 

“I did  _ not _ say that!” Alex was gesticulating, but Lena closed her eyes. Her stomach was heaving. “I said it was a  _ one-time, emergency use  _ pill. One time.  _ Once _ . Do you know what the number one means?”

“Alex, I swear to Rao,  _ you told me _ —-“

“Condoms! Condoms exist, Kara! Even if your stupid Krypton sperm can’t be contained by latex, you could at least  _ try _ to offer your partner safe se—“

“Please, stop.” Lena spoke up, through clenched teeth and tightly closed lids. “One of you needs to take me to the restroom. I’m going to throw up again.”

As it turned out, she only made it as far as the trashcan in the hallway. 

                                                                                        ***

**Author's Note:**

> Like it? Hate it? Come yell at me on [ Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bitterbones87) about it. <3


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